PSP Still Ahead In Japanese Hardware Sales

Market research firm Media Create has revealed data for weekly hardware sales in Japan for the week ending April 13th, following details of the software top thirty. Despite the number one success of Mario Kart Wii in the software charts, it is the sustained popularity of Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G which continues to drive hardware sales. The PSP hit helped maintain the position of Sony’s portable as the best selling console in Japan, with 85,721 unit sold – down 35,000 on the previous week. Despite the success of Mario Kart Wii, the Nintendo DS remained in second place, with sales down around 8,000 units at 47,158. Wii sales did increase slightly, though, up over 1,500 units to 46,296. As previously predicted, the PlayStation 3 finally passed the 2 million mark for lifetime sales-to-date in Japan this week. Weekly sales, though, dropped by 3,000 units to 8,232. PlayStation 2 sales were down by over 3,500 units to a total of 8,232, while the Xbox 360 fell by a few hundred units to 1,147. Overall in the software top fifty, there were twenty-five Nintendo DS titles, nine on the Wii, seven on the PlayStation 2, five on PSP, three on the PlayStation 3, and one on the Xbox 360.