Dragon Quest IX DS Passes 4 Million

Square Enix has confirmed that shipments of Dragon Quest IX on DS have now passed the four million mark since launching in Japan back on 11th July, 2009. This currently makes it the second highest selling game in the massively popular role-playing series that started back in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is thought that not only has the 27 million-plus userbase played a huge part in this hugely impressive feat, but the weekly online challenges have ensured gamers remain glued to the Level-5 developed game, rather than flooding the second-hand market with their used copies. The multiplayer element and renewed advertising campaign will not have hurt either, of course.

Japanese blogger sinobi has provided a full list of shipment figures for the rest of the series, which can be seen below:

• Dragon Quest (NES, 27/05/1986) - 1,500,000
• Dragon Quest II (NES, 26/01/1987) - 2,400,000
• Dragon Quest III (NES, 10/02/1988) - 3,800,000
• Dragon Quest IV (NES, 11/02/1990) - 3,000,000
• Dragon Quest V (SNES, 27/09/1992) - 2,800,000
• Dragon Quest VI (SNES, 09/12/1995) - 3,200,000
• Dragon Quest VII (PSone, 26/08/2000) - 4,150,000
• Dragon Quest VIII (PS2, 27/12/2004) - 3,700,000
• Dragon Quest IX (NDS, 11/07/2009) - 4,000,000 and counting