Pokemon, PSP Lead Japanese Sales For 2010

Nintendo's Pokemon Black/White was Japan's top-selling video game in 2010, thought Sony's PSP barely edged out a declining Nintendo DS to lead game hardware sales in the country. Statistics compiled by ASCII (and translated by 1UP) through December 27 show Nintendo's latest paired Pokemon titles selling over 4.7 million copies in 2010. The Pokemon releases led a stable of four Nintendo-published games in the top 10 list, including 2009 release New Super Mario Bros. Wii which sold over 1.6 million copies in 2010 to become the Wii's first four-million seller in the country. Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable 3rd took second place in the yearly sales with over 3.1 million units while two Square Enix Dragon Quest games took fifth and sixth place with over a million sales each. In game hardware, the PSP was the only system to sell more units in 2010 than 2009, rising 28 percent to sell through 2.729 million units in 2010. Nintendo DS sales rates fell just as sharply, down 28 percent from 2009's mark to represent 2.719 million sales in 2010. The Wii remained the country's best-selling home console, though sales were down nearly 9 percent over 2009 to just over 1.59 million sales in 2010. PS3 sales fell by a similar 7.6 percent to 1.54 million sales for 2010. Both systems easily outsold Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was down nearly 24 percent for the year with just over 231,000 sales. The PS2 was practically a non-factor in the Japanese market in 2010, down nearly 58 percent to repesent just over 83,000 sales in 2010. Full lists of the top-selling Japanese game software and hardware for 2010 are as follows: Japan's Top-selling Game Software for 2010 1. Pokemon Black/Pokemon White (DS) - 4,734,064 2. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) - 3,163,750 3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 1,692,401 4. Wii Party (Wii) - 1,385,541 5. Dragon Quest VI (DS) - 1,354,841 6. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 (DS) - 1,305,750 7. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 1,112,298 8. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) - 931,534 9. Inazuma Eleven 3 Snake/Bomber (DS) - 930,580 10 Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (PSP) - 844,980 Japan's Top-selling Game Hardware For 2010 (and unit change from 2009): 1. PSP (all): 2,729,718 (+604,199) 2. DS (all): 2,719,544 (-1,054,354) 3. Wii: 1,592,563 (-155,398) 4. PS3: 1,542,258 (-126,680) 5. 360: 231,258 (-118,405) 6. PS2: 83,030 (-114,116)