So I'm not looking to turn this into a big thread or anything. I just wanted to let people know this who didn't know. If you knew this, good for you. A lot of people are seeing the 265,000-300,000 number in the Japanese Sales ending Nov 4th for SMG as Week 1 sales for the game. This is NOT week 1 sales for the game. These are 3 day sales! Remember SMG came out in Japan on Nov. 1. (and the data tracks until Nov 4). These are not even HALF a week figures. While 300,000 in 3 days may still seem unimpressive to some, it is a lot better than 300,000 in a week. I just wanted to clear this up because I saw a lot of people thinking these were Week 1 sales for the game when it hasn't even been out for a week yet.

Those are preliminary figures anyway.

That's a good point, I was thinking this myself but didn't bother to think deeper.

That would make a full 7 days about 500k+, easily.

That should show next weeks software data close to being the same as it will be for the week just been.

Wait...

What chart?

Honestly? I'm still a little disappointed.

Granted, I expect it to stay above 50k/week until February, but few people grant the "Oh, it was just 3 days" to other games, though it has happened. It's not a bad start, but it's definitely not close to a Halo start either.

Preliminary sales, Montana.

http://vgchartz.com/news/news.php?id=613

<sigh>

Those reported figures are extrapolations. Its saying that (for instance) Galaxy has sold around 220k until now - and following normal sales patterns, will reach around 300k for the entire week. That is how it works.

The prelim sales threads are just extrapolations, based on the results of some sample sales figures/results. That's all. 

stop it with the 3 days thing, people bring that up every time a game does bad but most games come out on thursdays in Japan. Everyone that did the predictions should have been well aware of that too.

Many games in Japan will do half of the total sales in the first day. Obviously that won't be the case for mario galaxy but i wouldn't expect much more than 100k for week 2.

For reference, Sunshine sold 280,000 in its first week on sale back on the system that has now only just sold over four million. Now, with the Wii at about 3.7 million, Super Mario Galaxy has sold about 130,000 on its first day! New Super Mario Bros. whipped through 900,000 units in its first week on DS last year though.

@shams If this is true, then I am completely wrong. And everyone can go back to being just as disappointed in the sales figures.  But these predictions are for the week ending november 4 (which only includes 3 days of SMG).  They are not looking forward to this week's sales.  See what I mean?

Ummm, aren't those preliminary sales are for the week *ending* Nov 4th.  Why would they include expected sales *beyond* the 4th? That doesn't make sense at all...