PSP tops Japanese chart for third week

PlayStation Portable was the best selling hardware platform in Japan last week, taking first place in the hardware chart with sales of almost 53,000 - an achievement helped by the release of SEGA's Valkyria Chronicles 2, which made its debut in the software chart at number two.

SEGA's title was beaten only by the continued popularity of Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros Wii, which retook first place with sales of 111,000, compared to 94,000 for Valkyria Chronicles.

Elsewhere in the hardware chart positions were unchanged on last week, with the Wii coming second to PSP with sales of 45,167 and the PlayStation 3 some way behind with 26,966 units sold.

In the software chart, PSP games also took positions three and four in the chart, with Namco Bandai's Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces making its debut in the former and last week's number one - Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep - dropping to the latter.

Down one place to number five was Friend Collection, and also sinking one place to six was Wii Fit Plus.

Capcom's Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles dropped from third to seventh position, and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - the fourth PSP game in the top ten - climbed from from 13 to eight.

The full software chart for the week ending January 24 was as follows:

• 01 New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)
• 02 Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP)
• 03 Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces (PSP)
• 04 Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (DS)
• 05 Friend Collection (DS)
• 06 Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
• 07 Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii)
• 08 Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)
• 09 Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
• 10 Inazuma Eleven 2: Threat of the Invaders - Fire (DS)

The hardware chart was as follows:

• 01 PlayStation Portable - 52,909
• 02 Nintendo Wii - 45,167
• 03 PlayStation 3 - 26,966
• 04 DSi LL - 24,059
• 05 DSi - 20,373
• 06 DS Lite - 4966
• 07 Xbox 360 - 3343
• 08 PlayStation 2 - 2088
• 09 PSPgo - 1773