Weekly Japanese video game hardware sales chart

Though there is an overall decrease in hardware sales, the Sony PSP remains Japan's most purchased games console and combined sales of the Nintendo DS's three versions once again see it to second place overall.

Despite the PSP's ascendancy, its total unit sales are halved from the previous week (148,522), a trend common to all video game hardware but affecting Sony products most markedly. Yet, in comparison to the same time last year, total hardware sales are up by over 100 percent.

While overall standings remain unaffected by the drop-off in sales, the new larger version of the Nintendo DS, the DSi LL - to be known as the DSi XL when it launches in North America, Europe, and Australia in April - overtakes its closest ancestor in the DSi for the first time.

In contrast to Nintendo's latest offering and the general popularity of the PSP, uptake of the November 2009 PSP Go is so low that it is the least bought modern console in the chart. The PSP Go differs from other games consoles on the market in that its games are available as downloads only - there is no disc drive or cartridge port. Ninety-seven percent of PSP sales are of the the PSP 3000 series model, which can play both downloaded and disc-based games.

Japanese video game hardware sales, January 11-17, 2010
Total unit sales
1) PSP (73,213)
2) Nintendo DS (64,284)
3) Nintendo Wii (57,349)
4) PlayStation 3 (35,156)
5) Xbox 360 (4,622)
6) PlayStation 2 (2,580)

Sony PSP sales breakdown
PSP (71,186)
PSP go (2,027)

Nintendo DS sales breakdown
DSi LL (30,418)
DSi (27,292)
DS Lite (6,574)

source: Media Create