First week sales in Japan for Persona 4 Arena, via Media Create, was around 138,286 copies (128k for the PS3, 10k for the 360). This has made P4A the fastest selling (competitive) fighting game, in its first week in Japan, from 2008 to 2012.

Media Create comparison chart:

01. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy {2009.12.18} - 489,100

02. [PSP] Dissidia: 012 (Duodecim) Final Fantasy {2011.03.03} - 286,117

03. [PS3] Persona 4: Arena FTG {2012.07.26} - 128.485

04. [PS3] Tekken 6 {2009.10.29} - 103,105

05. [PS3] Street Fighter IV {2009.02.12} - 86,000

06. [PS2] Fate/Unlimited Codes {2008.12.18} - 82,900

07. [PS3] Super Street Fighter IV {2010.04.28} - 80,882

08. [PSP] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces {2010.01.21} - 76,088 09. [PS3] Soul Calibur IV {2008.07.31} - 74,607

10. [PS3] Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds {2011.02.17} - 67,187

via Eventhubs

The chart is not one of total sales since it's platform specific, but the position of the games on the list wouldn't really change if the 360 numbers were incorporated into the Sony platform ones.

Persona 4's pretty popular, I guess. Hopefully it'll do as well in North America next week as it did in Japan.

I can't imagine it'll do AS well, but it'll probably do better than OG persona 4 did.

Cool! Guess the Persona brand is strong in Japan. I've already got my preorder so I'll help bump up these sales in the US.

I'm kinda surprised Fate/Unlimited Codes apparently did that well.

P4A's online mode matches you up with players worldwide, right?

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

@TooWalrus said:

P4A's online mode matches you up with players worldwide, right?

yeah think so

@TooWalrus said:

P4A's online mode matches you up with players worldwide, right?

Yes.

@GunslingerPanda said:

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

"(competitive) fighting game"

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

That's pretty cool. I guess MK isn't a thing over there?

Not surprised majority of fighting games see long life in arcades in japan

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

Take that Street Fighter! Ryu who? we got Charlie Tunoku!

@GunslingerPanda said:

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

He said competitive fighting games, didn't he? Not party games.

@Harpell: I guarantee you that most of Japan gamers don't know of MK's existence even to this day. The Japanese Fighting Game Community may have been exposed to it through EVO 2011 and EVO 2012 but that's it really.

Awesome news for P4A, I hope it repeats that success worldwide.

@Demoskinos said:

*sigh* Really? There is a ton of depth to Dissidia fights. Its a perfectly galid fighting game.

Obviously this isn't a popular opinion or else it would have had some sort of competitive scene or be a presence at big fighting game tournaments. Even the Super Smash Bros. games were played competitively at EVO.

@Demoskinos said:

*sigh* Really? There is a ton of depth to Dissidia fights. Its a perfectly galid fighting game.

Obviously this isn't a popular opinion or else it would have had some sort of competitive scene or be a presence at big fighting game tournaments. Even the Super Smash Bros. games were played competitively at EVO.

@Turambar said:

I'm kinda surprised Fate/Unlimited Codes apparently did that well.

Japan loves them some Type-Moon

@FluxWaveZ

@Demoskinos said:

*sigh* Really? There is a ton of depth to Dissidia fights. Its a perfectly galid fighting game.

Obviously this isn't a popular opinion or else it would have had some sort of competitive scene or be a presence at big fighting game tournaments. Even the Super Smash Bros. games were played competitively at EVO.

Dissidia's design allows for too much customization to be popular on the competive scene, if people flipping their shit over the gems in SFxT is any indication.

@mutha3 said:

@GunslingerPanda said:

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

He said competitive fighting games, didn't he? Not party games.

Ah, right. So because you don't like it, it doesn't count. I get it.

Also, no, that's not what he said. Not in the title, anyway.

@Turambar said:

I'm kinda surprised Fate/Unlimited Codes apparently did that well.

Japan loves them some Type-Moon

@mutha3 said:

@GunslingerPanda said:

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

He said competitive fighting games, didn't he? Not party games.

Ah, right. So because you don't like it, it doesn't count. I get it.

Also, no, that's not what he said. Not in the title, anyway.

As I thought, P4Arena ended up doing very well in Japan. Hopefully it becomes a success up in North America too. <3

@Turambar said:

@Bocam said:

@Turambar said:

I'm kinda surprised Fate/Unlimited Codes apparently did that well.

Japan loves them some Type-Moon

I do too, but I'm still surprised how well they did. I wonder how well a Touhou fighting game would do.

There have been three Touhoufightinggames

@Turambar said:

@Bocam said:

@Turambar said:

I'm kinda surprised Fate/Unlimited Codes apparently did that well.

Japan loves them some Type-Moon

I do too, but I'm still surprised how well they did. I wonder how well a Touhou fighting game would do.

There have been three Touhoufightinggames

Screw you guys! Dissidia is awesome but is more of a hybird RPG action game than a fighting game, also you don't see it at EVO because is a PSP with only ad-hoc multiplayer so yeah... Square should stop goofing arround with FFXIII and make a Dissidia game for the PS3 instead.

p4a 3rd fastest selling fighting game in the last four years (japan)

@Turambar: ZUN would never allow it. It's the same reason why there hasn't been a professionally produced Touhou anime.

I'm actually more surprised that Street Fighter 4 did so poorly that first month. Did it just climb steadily or what?

@GunslingerPanda said:

@mutha3 said:

@GunslingerPanda said:

So we're just ignoring Dissidia's existence?

...Actually, that's for the best. Carry on.

He said competitive fighting games, didn't he? Not party games.

Ah, right. So because you don't like it, it doesn't count. I get it.

Also, no, that's not what he said. Not in the title, anyway.

No it's more of the fact that you wont find tournaments for dissidia anywhere, thus making it non competitive.

@wmaustin55 said:

I'm actually more surprised that Street Fighter 4 did so poorly that first month. Did it just climb steadily or what?

It sold a total of 157,704 units in Japan for the PS3. Given P4A sales in its first week, P4A should outsell SFIV's total sales next week.

I hope it gets some play at Evo 2013. I pretty much forget fighting games exist until Evo rolls around.

Its quite suprising how few copys of games are sold in Japan compared to their population.

Man, could you imagine Dissidia tournaments? They'd be an absolute mess.

@smcn said:

I hope it gets some play at Evo 2013. I pretty much forget fighting games exist until Evo rolls around.

Hmmm Let's see.

If we assume that the Namco and NetherRealm games do a straight swap, that means that Mortal Kombat and Soulcalibur V will go out and Injustice: Gods Among Us and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will come in. Let's also assume that SSFIV: Arcade Edition 2012, UMvC3 and King of Fighters XIII return from this year.

That leaves Street Fighter X Tekken, which is very unpopular at the moment. We'll have to see how P4A plays out in the Fighting Game Community in the coming year, but I can definitely see that being a good swap. The only other fighting games that have a chance are Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and Skullgirls.

I think it's P4A's spot to lose.

I'm going to guess and say it wont do so well at the start here in America, but pick up later on in the year.

Ive played Dissidia and it was pretty fun but a one on one action RPG is more of an apt description since unlike in a fighting game not only do you have to unlock characters but youd have to unlock moves and items (particularly weapons) as well. It probably has something more in common with a PVP World of Warcraft or Diablo or boss fights in a character action game wherein what items you have with you as well as character level progression are big variables that contribute to how successful or how difficult it is to defeat the opponent.

p4a 3rd fastest selling fighting game in the last four years (japan)

@Adaurin said:

@casperhertzog

p4a 3rd fastest selling fighting game in the last four years (japan)

I guess it's partially the OP's fault that people aren't comprehending this post correctly. The list is TOTAL sales to date. P4A arena is third even though it only been out for a week and it's third on the list for total sales, under the Dissidia games, which have been out longer. I believe they are saying P4A sold more in its first week than other fighting games, which would have been a better chart to show if it was available.

Not true. The list is for first week sales and not total sales, according to Media Create, which is pretty much what I stated in the OP.

@Turambar said:

@Bocam said:

@Turambar said:

I'm kinda surprised Fate/Unlimited Codes apparently did that well.

Japan loves them some Type-Moon

I do too, but I'm still surprised how well they did. I wonder how well a Touhou fighting game would do.

FSN was one of the best things I ever read!

I like tuna.

@FLStyle said:

@smcn said:

I hope it gets some play at Evo 2013. I pretty much forget fighting games exist until Evo rolls around.

Hmmm Let's see.

If we assume that the Namco and NetherRealm games do a straight swap, that means that Mortal Kombat and Soulcalibur V will go out and Injustice: Gods Among Us and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will come in. Let's also assume that SSFIV: Arcade Edition 2012, UMvC3 and King of Fighters XIII return from this year.

That leaves Street Fighter X Tekken, which is very unpopular at the moment. We'll have to see how P4A plays out in the Fighting Game Community in the coming year, but I can definitely see that being a good swap. The only other fighting games that have a chance are Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and Skullgirls.

I think it's P4A's spot to lose.

Any chance of the new Blazblue squeezing in there? I assume the character balance in would have to be much improved for that to happen?

@Ace829: It would have to be the best BlazBlue game in a long time to supersede P4A and VF5:FS. In the unofficial Top 3 they had at EVO this year VF5:FS was quite exciting and well received and P4A at the moment is very popular in the FGC (though it is the first week). When BlazBlue was chosen last year it was very flashy and interesting but the commentators had a hard time translating its complexity into something that first-time watchers could understand. I don't think P4A will have that problem.

Persona 4 Arena greatly exceeded Index's sales expectations with a total of 220k copies sold. It doesn't say, but I think that's only in Japan since North America isn't mentioned anywhere.

Source

@FluxWaveZ said:

Persona 4 Arena greatly exceeded Index's sales expectations with a total of 220k copies sold. It doesn't say, but I think that's only in Japan since North America isn't mentioned anywhere.

Source

I'm pretty sure that's japan yeah. I love the game, but no way in hell it sold that well here.

@gravitypenguin said:

@FluxWaveZ said:

Persona 4 Arena greatly exceeded Index's sales expectations with a total of 220k copies sold. It doesn't say, but I think that's only in Japan since North America isn't mentioned anywhere.

Source

I'm pretty sure that's japan yeah. I love the game, but no way in hell it sold that well here.

I mean that it could be a worldwide sales number.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@gravitypenguin said:

@FluxWaveZ said:

Persona 4 Arena greatly exceeded Index's sales expectations with a total of 220k copies sold. It doesn't say, but I think that's only in Japan since North America isn't mentioned anywhere.

Source

I'm pretty sure that's japan yeah. I love the game, but no way in hell it sold that well here.

I mean that it could be a worldwide sales number.

Yeah that could easily be worldwide. VGchartz, though of questionable accuracy, put sales at 260,000 global, 60,000 North America. Considering the game never charted in the NPD numbers on GAF those North American numbers seem in the realm of possibility too.