The Japan Game Ranking for September 21-27 placed Derby Stallion 2 at number one, according to weekly chart figures compiled by Famitsu. The horse-racing simulation game moved to the top spot upon arrival, unseating earlier console titles as Japanese buyers picked up fresh software at retail shops. That shift followed a busy run of autumn debuts, contrasting with the media updates tracked in our report on late September entertainment releases. Famitsu said early sales stayed strong [1].
Derby Stallion 2 Leads the Japan Game Ranking
Weekly retail tracking in Japan relies heavily on Famitsu store counts, which Anime News Network reported on October 10, 2026, for the September 21-27 tracking window. Derby Stallion 2 won the top spot during its first week on shelves [1]. Longtime fans turned out in force. It’s a familiar pattern in Japanese stores where established simulation brands often build steady sales without relying on flashy promotional campaigns.
Sales trackers in Tokyo group boxed software by units shipped to local retailers. This system gives publishers an accurate snapshot of consumer demand during busy autumn launch windows. When a title like Derby Stallion 2 enters the charts at number one, it displaces older hits that held top spots earlier in the month. Buyers who follow the Japan Game Ranking watch these shifts closely because weekly numbers reveal which genres keep momentum once launch-day crowds clear out of stores [1]. A strong start doesn’t guarantee long-term shelf presence, but it proves the franchise can still draw crowds on day one. Simulation games often maintain steady sales over several consecutive weeks.
Anime News Network published the sales breakdown after Famitsu verified point-of-sale receipts from participating retail chains. The data covers only boxed software, so digital download figures from storefronts like the Nintendo eShop aren’t included in this specific ranking tally [1]. Box sales drive Japanese retail culture. Digital storefronts continue to grow, but physical cartridges still matter to local collectors.
How Japanese Game Rankings Shift Week to Week
The top spot on the sales leaderboard changed hands quickly compared to the previous reporting frame. For the week of September 14-20, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave for Nintendo Switch 2 debuted at number one on the chart [2]. That tactical role-playing release drew heavy attention during mid-September before Derby Stallion 2 claimed the peak position one week later [1]. Japanese game rankings often swing between role-playing epics and simulation releases.
Publishers time their major releases carefully so they don’t collide on retail shelves. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave benefited from its position as a big release on Nintendo Switch 2. The title gave early console buyers a showcase adventure during mid-September. When new hardware enters the market, software debuts carry extra importance for hardware makers who need to keep store shelves stocked with compelling games [2]. Famitsu said the tactical title drew strong opening numbers. Players wanted new games for their fresh consoles.
Shifting chart positions illustrate how dynamic consumer habits can be in Japan during the late summer and early autumn months. One week belongs to fantasy strategy on new hardware, and the next week belongs to horse breeding and stable management [1]. Store displays change fast. It isn’t easy to predict which title will stay on top once fresh arrivals hit the shelves.
GameRankings and the Rise of Review Scores
While sales charts like Famitsu’s measure popularity through units sold, review aggregators used to track critical reception through numeric grades. GameRankings pioneered this approach after its start in 1999. The site built an online database that indexed gaming journalism from across the industry. Over its years of operation, the site indexed more than 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games, making it one of the earliest digital libraries for gaming criticism [3]. It helped gamers compare reviews quickly.
The aggregator grew its influence through company sales during the 2000s, joining CNET Networks and later moving under CBS Interactive as online gaming journalism grew into a mainstream commercial sector. During that era, GameRankings collected and linked to reviews from popular print magazines and websites, but it didn’t host full review texts on its own servers. Instead, editors gathered review scores from numerous American and European publications, evaluating which outlets were notable enough to include in their aggregate calculations before producing an overall percentage grade for each game in the archive [3]. That careful approach kept random blog posts from distorting scores. Readers trusted the site’s curated editorial standards.
Unlike storefronts that rely solely on star ratings, GameRankings wanted readers to see where a title stood relative to its peers. Once a title accumulated six total reviews from accredited outlets, the site assigned it a ranking against every game in the database. It also generated a separate ranking comparing the title against other games on its specific console. Six reviews unlocked console rankings [3].
Converting Letter Grades to Percentage Scores
A central challenge for GameRankings was making sense of different scoring scales used by publications in North America and Europe. Some magazines rated games on a scale of 1 to 5, others used a 10-point system, and many outlets graded releases with school-style letter grades from A to F. GameRankings solved this problem with a simple conversion method that translated every review into a percentage [3]. Under this system, an A+ grade converted to 100% or 10/10, while a standard A grade was set at 95%, with subsequent letter marks dropping by five percent increments.
This scoring conversion separated GameRankings from competitors that arrived later in the digital space. Metacritic adopted a weighted scoring formula that assigned hidden values to certain publications, but GameRankings avoided opinionated weight systems. Instead, the site calculated a simple mean of every accredited review score, treating all approved websites equally regardless of their staff size [3]. Math drove every calculation.
The platform operated for two full decades before CBS Interactive decided to consolidate its review aggregation properties. On December 9, 2019, GameRankings was discontinued and its web traffic was redirected to Metacritic. The staff merged with Metacritic [3]. Even after the closure, the old database serves as a helpful reference point for how classic games were evaluated during the early internet era.
Seven Games That Scored 97% or Higher
Earning an elite composite score on GameRankings required high marks across dozens of independent media outlets. By the time the website shut its doors in December 2019, only seven games in the entire database had achieved an aggregate score of 97% or higher. That small group consisted of major releases from Nintendo and Rockstar Games that shaped 3D platforming and open-world design [3]. For players who follow both review scores and weekly sales charts like the Japan Game Ranking, these titles stand as the highest-rated releases in the aggregator’s history.
Nintendo secured five of the seven highest spots, showing its strong software output over multiple console generations. The five Nintendo titles that cleared the 97% threshold were Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Each of these titles set standards for 3D exploration and camera control, earning top marks from American and European reviewers who liked their inventive mechanics. Five Nintendo titles cleared 97% [3].
The remaining two titles to reach that 97% threshold were Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V, both developed by Rockstar Games. These crime games showed that large sandbox environments with detailed scripts could earn high critical marks together with massive sales receipts [3]. Today, sales trackers like Famitsu continue to monitor weekly consumer interest through the Japan Game Ranking, while new debuts like Derby Stallion 2 build their own audience on store shelves [1]. Clear numbers guide both charts.
- ONLINE NEWS Anime News Network. (2026, October 10). Japan’s Video Game Rankings, September 21-27. Anime News Network. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Anime News Network. (2026, October 10). Japan’s Video Game Rankings, September 14-20. Anime News Network. [Article Link]
- WEBSITE Wikipedia. GameRankings. Wikipedia. [Article Link]
