Japanese Hardware: Xbox 360 Wins Its First Full Month Against PS3

The Xbox 360 has outsold the PlayStation 3 for the third week in a row in Japan, although hardware sales have been on the decline even while the software charts stay busy. The Nintendo DS was again the best seller, even though its sales fell by over 3,000 units to 57,847. The Wii clung to second place, dropping by almost exactly the same number to 26,314 units for the week. PSP sales also dropped by around 3,000 units, to a total of 25,671 for the week. With hardware stock levels now relatively stable, Xbox 360 sales fell by around 2,500 units to 11,291. With seven titles in the software top 50 -- including the number one spot -- the PlayStation 2 was the next-biggest seller. It was also the only format to see a major increase in sales this week, up over 2,000 units to 9,848. Despite two new titles in the software top 10, the PlayStation 3 ended up in last place, as hardware sales remained nearly identical to the previous week, at 8,275 units. Famitsu publisher Enterbrain's six-month hardware data also revealed that in the month of September, the Xbox 360 beat the PlayStation 3 in overall monthly sales for the first time ever in Japan. According to Enterbrain’s figures, as translated by Reuters, the Xbox 360 sold 53,547 units in the four weeks to September 28th, while the PlayStation 3 sold only 33,071 units. The Wii sold 109,548 units during the same period. Overall in Media Create’s software top 50, there were 21 titles for the Nintendo DS, 10 for the Wii, seven for the PlayStation 2, six for the PSP, four for the PlayStation 3, and two for the Xbox 360.