Square Enix crossover action RPG and Sony portable enjoy second week atop charts...as PSP Go finishes dead last in hardware rankings.
Sony and its PSP are starting the year off strong in Japan. The second full week of the year ended the same as the first, with the PSP and Square Enix's first Kingdom Hearts game for the portable topping the charts.
According to Media Create's weekly sales chart for January 11-17, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep finished the week with 177,405 copies sold, handily beating second place New Super Mario Bros. Wii (138,683 copies sold). Likewise, the PSP beat out the Wii as the best-selling piece of hardware for the week, racking up 71,186 units sold, compared to 57,349 for the Nintendo console.
Just as the top of the hardware charts held steady, so too did the assortment of laggards. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PSP Go were the worst-selling systems once again, with Sony's digital distribution handheld only managing to sell an anemic 2,027 systems, down from the previous week's 2,841 sales.
Not everything about the charts was static. Capcom's Wii shooter Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles debuted during the week and racked up 72,804 sales, enough for third place on the charts. Tekken 6 for the PSP also made its Japanese debut, with its 25,131 sold good enough to earn sixth place.
The only other new release to make the top 10 was Nintendo's DS Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku. Developed by Cing, the game is a follow-up to 2007's critically acclaimed Hotel Dusk: Room 215.
JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF JANUARY 11-17, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1) Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep / Square Enix / PSP / 177,405
2) New Super Mario Bros. Wii / Nintendo / Wii / 138,683
3) Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles / Capcom / Wii / 72,804
4) Tomodachi Collection / Nintendo / DS / 54,764
5) Wii Fit Plus / Nintendo / Wii / 42,359
6) Tekken 6 / Namco Bandai / PSP / 25,131
7) Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku / Nintendo / DS / 24,668
8) The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks / Nintendo / DS / 22,414
9) Wii Sports Resort / Nintendo / Wii / 22,328
10) Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryokusha - Fire and Blizzard / Level 5 / DS / 20,370
Hardware:
PSP - 71,186
Wii - 57,349
PS3 - 35,156
DSi XL - 30,418
DSi - 27,292
DS Lite - 6,574
Xbox 360 - 4,622
PS2 - 2,580
PSP Go - 2,027
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
its funny how ppl try to stick up for xbox 360. i mean i'm not taking sides with ps3 or 360 because their both great consoles. i just find it annoying how try to pick sides of each console when its clear that ps3 beats 360 worldwide while 360 beats ps3 only in america. so clearly ppl in prefer ps3 which i dont blame them because it comes with blueray and free wifi connection which is a huge plus.
the PS2 is a last gen console. the PSP go is a pricey gimmicky failure, and everyone already owns PSPs. 360 beating those is not a "huge victory." its actually pretty sad that it couldn't have beaten three consoles together, or at least 2 that matter. go beat it to your precious 360, and hope that it might one day have the power to compete with the PS3
Square-enix savior of the PSP!!!! (well not the silly PspGO removing the umd = epic fail) gonna have to pick this game up when it's onsale in Europe now give us KH3!!! :)
LOOK!!!! 360 beats PS2 and GO TOGETHER!!!! xD That's a huge victory for MS. How much Sony screws with GO, the dam thing was destined to die long before release and sony din't manage to see that. If japan din't take the DigitalDistributionOnly pill, america never will.
any one know about the European sales charts as we have the us and japan charts ant it funny how the US and Japan are opposite, in the us x360 sells while psp is seeing dust and the opposite is true in japan
At last KH: BirthBySlepp, up to show & top best selling For Console handled PSP, congratulation for best sellers I just Hope much more games PSP made like Breath Of Fire 2 Snes remake for PSP, or Fire Emblem Snes for PSP, or Else RPG-games & can play games long times without boring re-play every time, every day, every years...what every again?
I never get the lack of XBOX360 sales in Japan,considering that every time I look at leaderboard info on my 360 there are tons of Japanese gamers: it always seems the majority in and around my leaderboatrd scores and that I see online ARE Japanese.
Kingdom Hearts got the moon, got the cheese, got the whole damn nation on their knees.
So, the PSP is the the most selling console, just because of Kingdom Hearts? I'm not surprised.
Yay for KH beating Mario again...although I do think Mario might take the top spot again next week.
People in Japan do love their Kingdom Hearts games, don't they? I couldn't get into the series after the first one, which I was unable to finish due to an unfortunate memory card incident.
YES! GO BIRTH BY SLEEP! I can't wait to get my hands on that game! And I'd like to high-five the PSP topping the PSP-GO. Sony really didn't need to make it. And how the hell did the DSi XL beat out the DSi?! The point of the DS Lite and DSi was portability! This one's even bigger than the original DS, and it still doesn't have a GBA slot!
OMFG! Birth by Sleep released in Japan already!? I thought FFXIII was bad enough, now i really wish i was born in Japan. I wonder when's the release for BbS in NA, cuz i NEED to play a JRPG game right now T_T. Crisis Core and FF7-FFX can only last so long, you know?
Bout time the DS got kicked down a couple notches. Good job regular PSP! You make ur daddy proud!
Why is there SMB: Wii video in this article?... I can't wait for KH:BBS in the US. I can't wait! Hurry SE (but make it great!)! =)
Dramatic fall of Birth By Sleep. Still the sales are impressive with selling almost 700,000 copies.
Ah, Birth by Sleep. Such a pity its not available in the U.S. Why do we have to endure such torture!!!
Hah! Hey look at the picture of Ven. It looks like his keyblade is a gun pointed at the mouse.
I don't care about how well it did in Japan, I just want to know when BBS comes out in us!
you know it's a scary thing when the psp is selling 20 times more consoles than the xbox 360 is. But then again, it is japan.
PSPGo dead last,,,there's a shock that nobody saw coming...yeah, maybe if Sony, hell if any video game company read some of the posts from this site, garbage like the GO wouldn't be released.
Wow Dsi XL out sold the regular DSi for once and Kingdom hearts sure helped with PSP sales.
Yeah! A follow for Hotel Dusk Room 215 is out in Japan! Now I hope it will come out soon in Europe!! Anyone else waiting for this game?
Sony take note, KH sells systems! So consider making KH3 exclusive (timed) if you want to shift some PS3s
Inazuma Eleven 2 offers a new story and a couple of gameplay tweaks but is ultimately more of the same.
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