The latest craze to sweep the planet is Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day for the portable Nintendo DS. Selling more than 4 million units worldwide, including 600,000 in the Americas, 3 million in Japan and 500,000 in Europe, the top-selling title redefines how millions of people now think about video gaming.
European gamers picked up 500,000 copies in just nine weeks from the game’s launch. Sales have increased week on week since launch, with more than 60,000 copies now selling across Europe each week. This is unusual because game sales normally peak at launch and then decline throughout the product lifecycle. The European sales trend is even more impressive than that in Japan, where it took 16 weeks to sell the initial 500,000.
Brain Age first took Japan by storm with its edition that includes a series of math and memory puzzles designed to keep the mind agile. Even after selling 3 million copies in the 15 months since launch, Japanese sales are not showing any signs of slowing. The title was launched in the Americas and Europe this year and maintains a similar trend of steady weekly sales. Around the world, game players, baby boomers and seniors are intent on keeping their minds sharp by making Brain Age part of their daily routine. For many of them, Brain Age is the first video game they’ve ever played, showing Nintendo’s efforts to expand the audience of players is highly successful.
“Brain Age is so easy to pick up and play, regardless of your experience level,†says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, whose “Brain Age†has improved to age 20 (the best score you can achieve). “You can play it for 10 minutes or an hour and keep yourself feeling sharp. As a baby boomer, it’s like a treadmill for my mind.â€
Brain Age is a cornerstone of Nintendo’s new Touch Generations brand, which helps gaming newcomers identify which titles might be appropriate for them. The second title in the brain-training series, Big Brain Academy, launched in the Americas on June 5 and already has sold more than one quarter million units. Both titles have helped to lay the foundation for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii console, which also will include fun, simple games that everyone in the family will want to try.
So how does Brain Age play? Have a look:
What’s your brain age? Mine is 22 years young 🙂