14 DAY TRIAL // For the third week, hardware sales on the Japanese market are going down as there are less and less new videogames to spark the interest of videogame lovers. For the week that ended on January 24, the leading platform was the PlayStation Portable handheld from Sony, which moved 52,909 units, a clear decrease over the 71,186 it managed during the previous seven days.
Second place went to the Nintendo Wii home gaming console, which sold 45,167 units, again lower than the 57,349 for the week before. The PlayStation 3 from Sony seems to be solidifying its hold on third place with 26,966 home consoles sold in one week, down from 35,156.
The DSi line from Nintendo occupies the next three places, with the LL version, which has a bigger screen, the best sold at 24,059, again down from the 30,418 posted during the previous week. The Xbox 360 from Microsoft sold 3,343 units, which is better than the 2,088 for the PlayStation 2 and the 1,773 of the PSP Go.
The gradual decline of the overall sales numbers will probably continue until early in spring when new videogame releases will generate increased interest in the platforms on which they launch. New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii returned to the top of the videogame chart, with 110,000 units sold in a week, displacing Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for the PSP from Square Enix, which reigned last week and is now in fourth place. Second place went to Valkyria Chronicles 2 from SEGA, which was released for the PlayStation Portable and sold 94,000 copies.
Another new entry is Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces from Namco Bandai that sits in third place with 76,000 units sold. Fifth place goes to Tomodachi Collection, which managed to sell 45,000 copies.