Japan has notoriously been a hostile market to Western games, traditionally Eastern games far outsell the imports. It seems the land’s gamers are faithful to their beloved Japanese-styled games. So it does not come as a big surprise that Halo Reach, while smashing records in the West, it is put up a decent front in the East but nothing like the numbers in the rest of the world.
The game managed to peak at number four in the Media Create Top Ten, which in this hostile environment is not an achievement to be frowned upon as the top five spots are usually reserved for homemade titles. It was reportedly even close to sneaking up a spot from entries fromYu0Gi-Oh 5Ds Tage Force 5 for second place.
What is strange, or surprising though, is reports show that its week one sales of 44,413 were less than that of the 61,143 copies sold by Halo 3 at launch. What’s more is the Xbox 360’s install was far less in 2007 when Halo 3 was launched. It is no surprise that it did manage to out ODST’s though which managed 29,734 copies.
Given Reach’s reception elsewhere the numbers are a bittersweet victory. They managed a strong place but still can’t pip the stable Halo 3.