14 DAY TRIAL // Sales of the PlayStation Portable handheld from Sony rose for the week that ended on January 10, making it the only inhabitant of the hardware chart for the Japanese market, which registered an increase during the week. All other consoles lost sales in the seven days, with the Nintendo lineup being the most affected by the start of the year slump.
The PSP sold 145,682 units, which is 13,000 more than during the previous week. Sales of the handheld were boosted by the release of a new Square Enix title for the platform, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. Second spot in the chart went to the Nintendo Wii, which saw sales more than halved, going to 76,772 from 163,855.
The PlayStation 3 saw a similar decrease in buyers, only moving 61,591 units to gamers, compared to 114,268 for the previous interval. The Nintendo DSi handheld took fourth place with 50,178, while the DSi LL, the version with a bigger screen that is also set to arrive in North America in March, managed 45,221 in sales. It is followed in the chart by the DS Lite, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 2. The PSP succeeded in beating the entire DS line combined, which is a rare occurrence for the Sony device.
As mentioned above, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep from Square Enix is the best sold videogame of the week in Japan, moving 446,000 units to eager players and pushing the PSP to the top. New Super Mario Bros. Wii from Nintendo also managed a strong performance, reaching 159,000 in sales, while Tomodachi Collection (again from Nintendo) took third place with 94,000 units sold in one week.
Wii Fit Plus is in fourth place, with 54,000 units sold and is followed by The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, which sold less than 50,000 units, as it's quickly losing Steam following its initial success.