Riding the wave of Final Fantasy III, the DS sweeps the charts in the week ending August 27th.

Courtesy of Media-Create, we have the most recent sales figures from Japan.

If you did a double-take upon glancing at the latest software chart, you were certainly not alone. Rest assured, this is indeed the latest software sales chart from Japan - though indeed the results make it look like the DS sales chart. Skimming on the crest of Final Fantasy III enthusiasm, DS software controlled Japanese mindshare with a smattering of new games and familiar favorites. To no one's surprise, leading the way was Square-Enix's long-sought FF rebirth: the game easily sold over 500k copies, shattering S-E's own more modest estimates of 350k. By most accounts the game quickly entered "sold out" status leaving the venerable RPG maker to scramble to provide more copies. Lines formed for the game in many locations despite an extensive pre-order campaign. Square-Enix was on the money in their choice to bring this project to Nintendo's dual-screened miracle worker - expect future software announcements to reflect the now even greater confidence they have in the DS.

There was plenty going on that wasn't FF-related as well. New simulation-RPG Rune Factory, a DS game that revolves around the cult-favorite Harvest Moon series, debuted modestly enroute to its release in Western territories later this year. New Super Mario Bros continued its roll toward the 3 million-sold (in Japan) milestone, joining Brain Training 2 and Animal Crossing Wild World; however, NSMB will ultimately achieve the feat in far less time underscoring Japan's resurgent adoration of the bouncy plumber. Meanwhile the usual assortment of "Touch Generations" favorites continued to find their way into the hands of converts.

In hardware sales the DS Lite picked up again after a brief lull last week in which the system dipped below 100k. The weekly total also includes the Final Fantasy III limited-edition bundle (which utterly sold out.) There isn't too much more to say about the matter: this is domination, pure and simple folks. With the approach of heavy hitters such as Pokemon and Winning Eleven (both of which will have their own limited edition DS Lite designs) DS mania will not be subsiding for quite a while.

The weekly software numbers follow (hardware numbers upcoming):

The week's console numbers follow: