Japanese Sales Charts, Week Ending April 17th

With only one new entry in the top ten, and virtually no other movement in the chart, this week's Japanese chart was actually the worst week of sales in 2004 and 2005 so far, down to 48 percent of the weekly average. The re-entry of two titles into the top ten, a normally unheard-of feat in Japan, highlights this trend. The only new entry was Hudson’s role-playing adventure Far East of Eden III: Namida with 86,848 units sold - below the minimum of 100,000 normally expected for any number one title. The number ten ranked title sold only 4,979 units to achieve its position. Hardware sales were also predictably down, with the PlayStation 2 leading with just 30,572 unit sales and a 31.90 percent market share. In addition, the Game Boy Advance continues to perform well in face of stern competition, with an 11.40 percent share of the market, followed by the GameCube at 3.52 percent and the Xbox at 0.33 percent. However, the particularly notable news on the hardware sales from was that the PSP drew ahead of the Nintendo DS for the first time in three weeks. with 28,950 sales and a 30.21 percent market share for Sony's portable, compared to 21,698 sales and a 22.64 percent share for the Nintendo DS.

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