I never knew this before but the attach ratio for Final Fantasy games for the PS consoles were huge, sometimes as high as 1 in every 2 PS owners bought the game first week! So below is Final Fantasy 7 - 12 (excluding 11) with there released numbers, how many consoles were sold at the time it was released and how much consoles were sold during that week. Also the very last paragraph is my prediction of FFXIII sales if history repeats itself.

When FFVII was released there was 4.5 million PS consoles sold in Japan at the time, and FFVII sold 2 million first week! (about 5 days of sales) That’s almost 1 in 2 PS owners that bought FFVII! Close to 165K consoles sold first week.

When FFVIII was released there was 11 million PS consoles sold in Japan, and FFVIII sold 2.6 million for the first week, and it only had 3 days of sales. That’s about 1 in 4.5 PS owners bought FFVIII first week. A little over 100K console sold first week.

When FFIX was released there was 16.7 million PS consoles sold in Japan, and FFIX sold 2 million first week (and actually this is from 2 days of sales!). That’s about 1 in 8 PS owners bought FFIX in the first two days it was released. Around 65K sold for that week.

When FFX was released there was 5 million PS2 consoles sold in Japan, and FFX sold 1.9 million in it’s first week, that’s in 3 days of sales for that week. About 1 in 2.5 PS2 owners bought FFX first week. A whopping 172K PS2’s were sold first week.

When FFXII was released there was 20 million PS2 consoles sold in Japan, and FFXII sold 1.8 million in it’s first week, again only 3 days of sales for that week. So roughly 1 in 11 PS2 owners bough FFXII first week. And there was 67K PS2’s sold in Japan for that week, which is still impressive since it was selling at around 25K a week before that week.

So if history repeats itself for FFXIII and since it'll be on a new platform, there should be roughly 4 million PS3’s sold in Japan when FFXIII is release, and so the attach ratio should be about 1 in every 2.5 or 3 PS3 owners will buy FFXIII so that’s about 1.6 or 1.9 million copies of FFXIII sold first week. And if the PS3 remains around 20K or higher every week until FFXIII is released then it could hit close to 150K consoles first week. (Also depends if there’s a price cut around that time)

FFXIII will be huge.

^ ASSURE THAT, oh god and versus will be immense!

the god thing sony may be able to do a price and reach the 299$ price point by that time.

If there's a price cut we could see close to 200K PS3's sold in Japan for that week, that's just insane.

I just hope they chose a wise release date for versus so it isn't hidden behind FFXIII or some other title.

FFXIII will do a million first week minimal, Versus will also do the same but numbers will be lower than FFXIII. I say million first week for both games just in Japan, WW would push FFXIII to 2 million first week and maybe even versus.

People who buy FF in Japan know before the generation begins that they'll buy it. No matter where it comes out. That's why you see similar launch weeks for every instalment. FFXIII will be no different. If they didn't have a PS3 before, they'll buy one just for that.
My bet is that when all is said and done, FFXIII will have similar numbers to every other FF in Japan.
200-500k off at most.

I had always heard that the Dragon Quest series was even more well-received in Japan than Final Fantasy.

Any idea how those numbers compare?

According to VG Chartz the highest selling Dragon Quest game is Dragon Quest VIII, and it sold 4.69 worlwide or 3.62 in Japan alone, and had a huge first week of 2.2 million and this is out of 2 days. There was 17 million PS2's already sold so thats a attach ratio of about 1 in 8 PS2 owners in Japan bought DQVIII first week. The PS2 also went and sold 125K that week.

The closest Dragon Quest game that came close to DQVIII is DQ VI for the SNES and it sold 3.19 million in Japan only, and it had 1.5 million first week. So it's still a huge game in Japan but obviously Final Fantasy is bigger.

Although it's a vgchartz forum I'd rather go with Famitsu numbers when it comes to japanese sales. So going by garaph.info :

There were 4,574,562 PS2s in Japan when FFX launched. It sold 1455k copies on its 1st day, 1,749,737 1st week, and 2,323,463 LTD.

With 3,5m-4m PS3s in Japan by the time FFXIII launches it should be able to have similar numbers.