For the week ending January 4, Nintendo’s newish handheld sold 182,518 units. It was a noticeable (yet expected) drop from the two previous weeks, which resulted in 188,697 sales last week and a staggering turnover of 204,144 for the previous Christmas week.
Nintendo’s DSi still managed to outsell Sony’s PSP this week, though Sony will be delighted with its consoles' recent successes in Japan. Our most recent report showed Sony’s PSP moved some 71,000 units; around 100,000 less than its handheld competitor, yet the following week it had more than doubled its sell-through to around 146,000 sales, and now picks up momentum this week by shifting over 157,000 units.
Sony’s other current-gen platform has also enjoyed strong successive sales. It was only two months ago that Sony discovered the PS3 had sold a worrying 4,800 units in Japan across a week; now the console sells more than that figure each day, reaching over 60,000 sales as it enters the new year. The week prior it had moved around 46,000 units.
By contrast, the Xbox 360 managed to sell a third of what Sony had achieved, with sales of 19,694, though still climbing over 6,000 sales from the previous week.
The PS2, meanwhile, has continued to relieve Sony’s challenging time in the market. As the mature console hits its 50 millionth sale in North America, in Japan it sold 12,548 for the week, a climb of some 2,000 units from the previous one.
The Wii, meanwhile, enters the year by doubling the success of the PS3. Nintendo’s home console moved around 120,000 units in a single week, though sales had dropped a little from its achievement of some 134,000 sales the week prior.
Interestingly, the only consoles that felt a drop from last week were all made by Nintendo; the Wii, DSi and DS Lite all fell slightly. However, only the most pessimistic viewer would see this as a genuine decline in popularity, as opposed to an unflattering comparison to the holiday sales madness.
Full list for the week ending Jan 4 according to Media Create:
DSi- 182,518
PSP- 157,088
Wii- 119,965
PS3- 60,654
DS Lite- 48,160
Xbox 360- 19,694
PS2- 12,548
Note: Sales data expected to update within two days.