In one week, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake has become Japan’s best-selling game of the year

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake has enjoyed a strong first week of sales in its native Japan.

According to Famitsu’s weekly charts, Square Enix‘s latest release took the number 1 and 2 places (on Switch and PS5 respectively) by a large distance, selling ten times as much as the rest of the top 10 combined.

The Switch version sold 641,195 copies while the PS5 version sold 185,750 copies, making for a total of 826,945.

Numerous Japanese sites have been reporting that the game is selling out, so if stock is replenished quickly or more players turn to digital stores it seems likely the game will pass the 1 million mark next week.

Japanese news account Genki posted on X that the figures mean in just one week Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake has “instantly become the number 1 best-selling game in Japan for the whole of 2024”.

Further reading

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake producer wants Final Fantasy 6 to get the HD-2D treatment

Masaaki Hayasaka says FF6 was used as a reference when creating the HD-2D style

They also noted that it was the biggest first-week launch in Japan since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Square Enix’s biggest first-week launch in Japan since Dragon Quest 11 was released on 3DS and PS4 seven years ago.

For comparison, by the end of the first half of 2024 the best-selling boxed game in Japan was Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which had sold an estimated 339,168 units.

Japan software charts (courtesy of Famitsu)

1. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch) – 641,195 (new entry)
2. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (PS5) – 185,750 (new entry)
3. Super Mario Party Jamboree (Switch) – 32,762 (total 442,593)
4. Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) – 15,168 (total 78,609)
5. Beyblade X: Xone (Switch) – 9,507 (new entry)
6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) – 5,784 (total 7,954,332)
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) – 5,647 (total 6,055,931)
8. Minecraft (Switch) – 4,771 (total 3,676,339)
9. Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (Switch) – 4,551 (total 96,293)
10. Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Switch) – 4,445 (total 1,051,401)