PSP outsells 3DS in latest Japanese charts

The PSP is once again the best-selling hardware in Japan by a clear margin, after the system reached parity with the 3DS last week.

According to data from Media Create, received early by website Kotaku, sales of the PSP have reached 58,075 (including 696 for the PSPgo) - an increase of 7,000 on the previous week. This compares to 42,979 for the 3DS, which experienced a drop of almost 8,000 over the last seven days.

Although combined PSP sales last week beat the 3DS by a small margin, this week PSP-3000 sales alone have outstripped those of Nintendo's new portable.

The best-selling home console of the week was again the PlayStation 3, with sales down only a few hundred to 27,453. The Wii experienced a similar drop to 10,249.

Despite a new number one in the software charts the Nintendo DS family of consoles saw sales increase by less than a thousand to a combined 19,901. The Xbox 360 dropped slightly to 1,789 and the PlayStation 2 rose slightly to 1,996.

Number one-selling title Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker Professional is an expansion of the 2010 DS title, which has so far not been released in the West. It adds over 100 new monsters to the Pokémon-influenced game and a number of new regions and abilities. The game sold 163,008 units in its debut.

Much of the PSP's success this week is due to a peculiarly Japanese title: dating simulator Amagami. The game was originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2009, with the new PSP version selling 69,221 units at number two and the re-released PlayStation 2 version 17,261 at number six.

Fighting game BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II reached number five on PSP, with 23,808 sales. The 3DS version released at the same time did not make the top 20.

The only 3DS title in the top 10 this week is baseball game Pro Yakyu Famista 2011 at number nine with 12,851 sales. Anime tie-in Naruto Shippuden: Ninrattai Emaki! Saikyou Ninkai Kessen!! on 3DS was also a new entry at number 15, although it was beaten by the PlayStation 3 version of Crysis 2 at number 12.