Wii Super Smash Bros tops half a million in first day sales

Kyoto (Japan) - Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii sold over 500,000 copies in its first day in Japan, more than all other new releases on all platforms combined.

Super Smash Bros Brawl launched in Japan on January 31 and in its first 24 hours sold more than 500,000 copies, according to the Japanese source Famitsu. That accounts for around 80% of the game’s total shipments in Japan.

No other new release came close. The Playstation 3 version of Devil May Cry sold 140,000 copies, followed by the PS2’s Haruhi at 105,000 units and Tales of Destiny : Director’s Cut with 70,000. It is also the biggest one-day sales number for any Wii game in Japan.

If Nintendo can quickly re-stock, it is expected that the game could reach the million-sales mark in less than a week. The game was originally scheduled for a North American release for the 2007 holiday season, but due to a couple delays it has been pushed back to March 9.

Brawl is easily the most anticipated Wii game to date. The game’s official site is currently rated more popular than Nintendo.com and Wii.com, according to Web tracker Alexa. Smashbros.com currently ranks as the 681st most popular site on the Internet.

Even though the Wii is region-coded, the Japanese version of the game has been selling on Ebay to US customers for as much as $265. Other auctions are including a Japanese Wii console for bundle packages nearing $500.