3DS back on top in Japan as Wii U fades

The Wii U lost some of the momentum it gathered with the release of Pikmin 3 in Japan last week, as the 3DS reasserted its traditional dominance in both hardware and software.

After hitting 22,000 sales last week, the Wii U sank to 14,000 as the initial excitement around Pikmin 3 began to fade. That much was evident in sales of Pikmin 3, which shifted less than a third of its total from the previous week: 28,513 units.

To put that in perspective, Pikmin 3 suffered a much sharper dip in its sales than Level-5's Yokai Watch, which also debuted last week, and actually outsold the Nintendo exclusive this week.

Nintendo will take some consolation from the fact that the new reigning champion of the software charts is one of its own: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team for the 3DS, which sold a few shy of 100,000 units in its debut week. The other high new entry in an otherwise quiet week was also a 3DS title: Level-5's Danball Senki W Super Custom.

As a result, both models of the 3DS hardware saw a boost in sales, with the 3DS XL adding almost 12,000 units to last week's total.

The full hardware chart is below, with previous week's sales in parentheses:

• 1. 3DS LL - 41,322 (29,594)
• 2. 3DS - 15,703 (13,841)
• 3. PlayStation Vita - 14,392 (15,662)
• 4. Wii U - 14,280 (22,199)
• 5. PlayStation 3 - 11,413 (12,698)
• 6. PSP - 5,719 (5,830)
• 7. Wii - 1,463 (1,434)
• 8. Xbox 360 - 420 (393)

The full software chart is below, with lifetime sales in parentheses:

• 1. [3DS] Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (Nintendo, 07/18/13) - 99,972 (New)
• 2. [3DS] Yokai Watch (Level-5, 07/11/13) - 29,102 (82,756)
• 3. [Wii U] Pikmin 3 (Nintendo, 07/11/13) - 28,513 (121,233)
• 4. [3DS] Danball Senki W Super Custom (Level-5, 07/18/13) - 27,242 (New)
• 5. [3DS] Tomodachi Collection: New Life (Nintendo, 04/18/13) - 26,799 (1,286,646)
• 6. [PS3] Earth Defense Force 2025 (D3 Publisher, 07/04/13) - 20,255 (211,968)
• 7. [PSV] Toukiden (Tecmo Koei, 06/27/13) - 12,953 (199,916)
• 8. [Wii U] New Super Luigi U (Nintendo, 07/11/13) - 12,132 (37,014)
• 9. [PSP] Toukiden (Tecmo Koei, 06/27/13) - 11,008 (129,412)
• 10. [3DS] Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Nintendo, 06/13/13) - 10,826 (217,148)
• 11. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) - 10,075 (3,335,198)
• 12. [3DS] Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Nintendo, 03/21/13) - 9,366 (834,392)
• 13. [PS3] Dead Island: Riptide (Spike Chunsoft, 07/11/13) - 6,962 (25,423)
• 14. [PSP] DanganRonpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair(PSP the Best) (Spike, 11/23/11) - 6,447 (97,651)
• 15. [PS3] The Last of Us (SCEJ, 06/20/13) - 6,413 (179,594)
• 16. [3DS] Kuma Tomo (Namco Bandai, 06/20/13) - 6,019 (28,055)
• 17. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition (Namco Bandai, 11/29/12) - 5,630 (522,496)
• 18. [PS3] Gundam Breaker (Namco Bandai, 06/27/13) - 5,279 (248,098)
• 19. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII-2 Digital Contents Selection (Square Enix, 07/18/13) - 4,890 (New)
• 20. [3DS] Digimon World Re: Digitize Decode (Namco Bandai, 06/27/13) - 4,155 (55,107)

Thanks, Gemtasu.