Wii Takes Japanese Hardware Lead From PS3

As Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII fell from its top sales slot, so did its host system, the PlayStation 3, leaving the Wii to take the top slot by a significant margin. And just as PlayStation 3's performance reflected Final Fantasy XIII's, so did Wii's mirror New Super Mario Bros.'s return to the top slot on the software side. According to tracking firm Media Create's Japanese sales data for the week that ended December 27, 2009, the Wii sold 215,129 units, more than 100,000 more than second-place Nintendo DSi, which just edged out the PlayStation 3. (However, two other Nintendo DS models totaled nearly an additional 100,000 units during the week.) The standard PSP model was not far behind PlayStation 3, but the system's newer UMD-less cousin, the PSP Go, did not fare so well: while PSP totaled up 105,801 units, the Go managed only 4,192 -- just barely ahead of the long-waning PlayStation 2 system. As is frequently the case, Xbox 360 showed middling Japanese performance, racking up 6,489 unit sales for the week. Below are the full sales rankings from Media Create for the week that ended December 27, 2009.

Wii:             215,129
Nintendo DSi:    113,984
PlayStation 3:   110,519
PSP:             105,801
Nintendo DSi LL:  81,430
Nintendo DS Lite: 17,695
Xbox 360:          6,489
PSP Go:            4,192
PlayStation 2:     3,747

The following list combines models of the same base hardware to give a more general ranking:

Wii:             215,129
Nintendo DS:     213,109
PlayStation 3:   110,519
PSP:             109,993
Xbox 360:          6,489
PlayStation 2:     3,747