including best action game, visual excellence, sound excellence, best story, best multiplayer game, and game of the year. It was the readers' choice in every category except for best multiplayer game. IGN, however, named it only one of the runners-up in all of these categories. Sales Spirit Tracks ranked second in its debut week in Japan, selling 291,496 copies. The next week, it fell to third place, selling approximately 126,000 copies. It fell to fifth place the following week, selling approximately 49,000 copies, and falling to eighth place next week, selling approximately 22,000. For the first half of 2010, Spirit Tracks ranked as the 14th best-selling game in Japan, selling 376,054 copies with total sales at the time at 696,995. Forbes' Brian Caulfield anticipated that Spirit Tracks would strengthen DSi sales for December. IGN predicted that DSi sales would remain steady, due to Spirit Tracks in part. Nintendo listed Spirit Tracks as a title that will have appeal to a wider age group in its financial report. Former Nintendo of America Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Cammie Dunaway used Spirit Tracks as a show of its holiday contenders in 2009. Spirit Tracks was anticipated to be the best-selling video game of December 2009 in North America by video game sales analyst Michael Pachter. GamePro predicted that Spirit Tracks would be the fourth best-selling game of December, expecting sales in excess of 725,000 copies. For its debut week, it ranked number one for Nintendo DS games. It retained its position in the following week. Spirit Tracks debuted at 12th place in the United Kingdom's video game sales chart. It was the fourth best-selling DS game in the UK. During the financial year ending on March 31, 2010, Spirit Tracks sold in excess of 2.61 million copies. Notes References 2009 video games Video games about curses Video games about demons Nintendo DS games Video games about spirit possession Steampunk video games Spirit Tracks Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Video games featuring non-playable protagonists Video games with cel-shaded animation Trains in fiction Video games with alternate endings Virtual Console games Virtual Console games for Wii U Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games scored by Toru Minegishi