The Nintendo Wii dominated the hardware sales in Japan for the week ending the 3rd of February. The latest figures from Media Create show that the Wii sold 94 473 units, roughly 20 000 more units than last week’s 74 544 units.

Although this surge in Wii sales was somewhat expected after yesterday’s software figures revealed Super Smash Bros. Brawl had broken records by selling 820 000 copies in just four days, it is still a bit of a surprise to see the popular handheld systems taking back seat to a next-generation console.

Sony records good performance for PSP and PS3

Last week the competition between the handheld systems heated up with the Nintendo DS narrowly beating Sony’s PSP on the hardware chart. The Nintendo DS has dominated the Japanese gaming scene in recent times but the PSP has been slowly gaining on the DS of late, with just 1 400 units separating the two rivals last week. This week the PSP sold 72 528 units, considerably more than the Nintendo DS which sold 67 472 units. However, both consoles still experienced a decline in sales from the previous week where the PSP sold 77 933 units and the NDS 79 370 units.

Sony also recorded a solid performance by the PS3 which showed a marked improvement by selling roughly 7 000 more units than last week. The PS3 sold 41 796 units this week in comparison to 34 363 units last week. This sales spike is also to be expected after yesterday’s software chart revealed that the PS3 version of Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4 debuted with 205 000 copies.

Microsoft’s woes continue with the 360

The PS2 is still selling steadily, with 12 115 units leaving shelves this week, up slightly from last week’s 11 364. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 still trails the pack with 6 060 units sold this week, however, it did show a small increase from last week’s 4 296 units. With Microsoft’s recent announcement that they will be selling a cheaper model of the Xbox 360 in Japan from March, it will be interesting to see if the 360 will continue to struggle against its rivals in the land of the rising sun or if the new price tag will help to increase its current dismal performance.

Missed this week’s Japanese software chart? Head over to Super Smash Bros. Brawl sells record 820K!.

Hardware Chart

Source: Media Create