Following many weeks of Japanese market dominance on the part of the PSP, Nintendo’s DS has put its hand up to challenge Sony’s towering beast. The result?

Both the DSi and DSi LL have managed to topple the creature and exceed the weekly sales numbers accrued by the PSP.

The release of Pokemon Black and White in Japan last week just might have something to do with this turn of events…

For the week ending September 19th in Japan, the Nintendo DSi sold over 47 000 units to claim the top spot on Media Create’s Hardware Sales Chart, followed by the console’s younger (but bigger) sibling, the DSi LL with a little over 31 000 units sold.

Almost 30 000 PSP consoles made their way into Japanese hands, pockets and backpacks this week – under a thousand units less than the number of consoles sold last week, but not enough to curb the tide of the DS/Pokemon combination.

The PS3 sold a little more this week compared to last, with 21 000 units going out this week, while the Wii sold a little less, down to almost 15 000 consoles sold this past week in Japan. The DS Lite, meanwhile, was also affected slightly by the release of Pokemon, with an increase in sales of around 3000 units taking the total to just over 7 000 for the week.

Xbox 360 sales increased up to nearly 6 000 units (up from 3 000 last week) thanks to the release of Halo: Reach in Japan, while PS2 and PSPgo sales remained fairly static at 1 300 and 800 units respectively.

Hardware Chart

• DSi – 47 379
• DSi LL – 31 254
• PSP – 29 866
• PS3 – 21 096
• Wii – 14 833
• DS Lite – 7 137
• Xbox 360 – 5 804
• PS2 – 1 390
• PSP go – 863

You can see last week’s Japanese Hardware Sales Chart over here, and also find out which consoles are leading the year-to-date sales race so for in Japan.