Editing Dragon Quest III (section)

=== Sales ===
In Japan, ''Dragon Quest III'' sold over one million copies on the first day with almost 300 arrests for truancy among students absent from school to purchase the game.<ref name="keiser198806">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/1988-JUn-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_097_1988_JUn#page/n7/mode/2up | title=One Million Sold in One Day | work=Compute! | date=June 1988 | accessdate=10 November 2013 | author=Keiser, Gregg | pages=7}}</ref> It is often mistakenly thought that in 1988 the game's success caused the [[Government of Japan|Japanese government]] to outlaw further releases of ''Dragon Quest'' games on school days. In truth, Enix themselves decided to hold off the release of future ''Dragon Quest'' games until weekends.<ref name="threat" />

The original Famicom/NES version of ''Dragon Quest III'' went on to sell 3.8 million copies total in Japan, and 95,000 units in the United States.<ref name="planetnint" /> In Japan, the Super Famicom remake sold 1.4 million units, with nearly 720,000 units sold in 1996 alone.<ref name="magicbox" /><ref name="magicboxbest" /> The Game Boy Color version sold a lower 604,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2001.<ref name="magicbox100" /> Together, with the sales of the remakes, ''Dragon Quest III'' is the most successful title in the series and one of the best selling role-playing games in Japan.<ref name="rpgfan" /> The combined sales of the Famicom/NES, Super Famicom and Game Boy Color versions add up to 5.899 million units.

As of November 2010, the Japan mobile phone version was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.<ref name="4gamer" /> The Wii ''Dragon Quest Collection'' sold 403,953 copies in 2011.<ref name=salestrends/>