Final Fantasy VIII Tops Videogame Charts - IGN (original) (raw)

Square Electronic Arts today announced that Final Fantasy VIII has sold near unprecedented amount of units since it shipped on September 8.

Final Fantasy VIII has remained the No.1 in U.S. sales across all videogame software categories in the three weeks since its September 9 release, according to the NPD TRSTS Weekly Interactive Entertainment Service.

"We are thrilled that Final Fantasy VIII is on fire at retail," said Jun Iwasaki, president of Square Electronic Arts. "Final Fantasy VIII is turning out to be an epic launch worldwide. It is very gratifying to see such a strong following for the award-winning title in North America."

"The reputation of this best-selling RPG series and the consumer anticipation for Final Fantasy VIII, available only on PlayStation, has helped to drive consumer demand for the category in September,'' said Andrew House, vice president, marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "PlayStation's momentum shows no signs of abating and clearly the sales success of FINAL FANTASY VIII is a crowning achievement on what is already going to be an incredible year for the platform."

Electronic Boutique also reports significant sales on the title. "This has been a very good title for us,'' said Joseph Firestone, CEO of Electronics Boutique. "We are seeing a significant increase in the amount of traffic inside of our stores and many of those consumers are here to buy Final Fantasy VIII. We expect this title to continue its strong retail presence throughout the holiday season. This is a hot item that will appear on many gift lists this year."

To get an idea of how Final Fantasy and other games stand, check out this sales comparison, courtesy of NPD.

This list includes the top selling best videogames, and how they are ranked in terms of sheer units sold from September 5 to 11. From left to right are the way in which theis games are listed:
Rank / Platform/Title Publisher/Average Retail Price

1 PSX Final Fantasy VIII Square EA $50
2 DC Sonic Adventure Sega of America $50
3 DC Soul Calibur Namco $48
4 DC NFL 2K Sega Of America $49
5 DC Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Midway Home Entertainment $49
6 PSX Madden NFL 2000 Electronic Arts $40
7 GBC Pokemon Pinball Nintendo Of America $29
8 PSX Gran Turismo Racing Sony Computer Ent. $20
9 PSX Driver GT Iinteractive $40
10 N64 WWF Attitude Acclaim Entertainment $60
11 Game Boy Pokemon Red Nintendo of America $27
12 GBOY Pokemon Blue Nintendo of America $27
13 N64 Pokemon Snap Nintendo of America $50
14 DC Blue Stinger Activision $50
15 PSX Spyro The Dragon Sony Computer Ent. $20
16 PSX WWF Attitude Acclaim Entertainment $40
17 PSX Crash Bandicoot Warped Sony Computer Ent. $20
18 DC House of the Dead 2 Sega of America $49
19 PSX NFL Gameday 2000 989 Studios $40
20 DC Hydro Thunder Midway Home Entertainment $49