PSP beats DS, PS3 beats Wii in 2010 Japanese sales

Sony had the best-selling portable and home console in Japan during fiscal 2010, beating Nintendo on both fronts for the first time in the company's history.

The end of year market report from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, as translated by website Andrisang shows that the victory was extremely narrow in both cases, with hardware sales for the top two and second two formats almost identical.

For the 12 months ended March 27 the figures were:

• PSP*: 2,640,499 (16,867,853)
• Nintendo DS: 2,523,142 (32,598,870)
• PlayStation 3: 1,407,126 (6,341,950)
• Wii: 1,397,498 (11,534,590)
• Nintendo 3DS**: 801,423
• Xbox 360: 195,563 (1,448,665)

* including PSPgo ** including DSi XL, DSi, and DS Lite

Lifetime sales for both Nintendo formats dwarf their Sony rivals, and the impending release of the 3DS is likely to have contributed to the relatively poor performance of the DS. However, both hardware and software sales for the Wii have been declining for over a year in Japan.

The number one selling game during the fiscal period was Nintendo's Pokémon Black/White on DS, with a combined 5,149,022 unit sales. Capcom's PSP exclusive Monster Hunter Portable 3rd was the second best seller on 4,372,182, followed by Nintendo's Wii Party on 1,826,857, Square Enix's Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 on DS at 1,283,423 units sold and Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy 2 on Wii at 956,853.

Overall the Japanese games market shrunk by 13.9 per cent from the previous 12 months, to ¥472.6 billion ($5.63 billion). Hardware sales were down 21 per cent to ¥170.68 billion ($2.03 billion) and software down 9.3 per cent to ¥301.92 billion ($3.59 billion).