Despite many 1-star Amazon Japan reviews (allegedly due to 2chan trolling), Dragon Quest did rather well in its opening weekend, if by rather well I meant absolutely incredible. In its opening week Dragon Quest IX sold over 2.3 million copies according to Media Create’s weekly numbers. Released on a Saturday (to discourage people from skipping school and work to play the game), that breaks the 2-day sales record of its predecessor Dragon Quest VIII by 100,000 copies. Dragon Quest IX’s release also gave the Nintendo DS a significant bump, selling 126,786 units that week.

Square Enix has reportedly shipped 3 million copies already, and Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has said that he hopes to eventually ship 5 million. He was unclear as to whether he meant in Japan or worldwide, but seeing as Dragon Quest VIII fell short of 5 million worldwide, it’s a bold statement. I certainly will be picking it up when it comes out in North America… whenever that will be.