Japanese Charts: DS Retakes Lead In Battle Of The Color SKUs

After weeks of underperformance the Nintendo DS has returned as the number one selling hardware platform in Japan. Although aided by the large number of new releases in the software chart, the main reason for its return to the top was three new hardware colors: Pink, Lime Green and Metallic Blue. Altogether DS sales more than doubled to 80,181 units (71,233 for the DSi and 8,948 for the DS Lite). The increase in sales pushed combined lifetime-to-date sales of the DS platform in Japan to over 26 million, according to Media Create’s own data. This agrees with Nintendo’s recent announcement of 26 million sales in Japan, although Media Create’s figure for the DSi alone is still a little shy of Nintendo’s 2 million claim, at 1,973,419 units. The PSP also benefited from the release of its own new hardware colors this week, with the second two “Carnival Color” hardware SKUs of Bright Yellow and Spirited Green. As a result, sales were up 22,302 units to 65,765. This change saw the PSP reach its own milestone figure of 12 million units sold lifetime-to-date in Japan. With no new hardware or software to help it, the Wii remained in fourth place, beaten again by the PlayStation 3. Sales of Sony’s primary home console fell by 2,500 units to 25,435, though, as all the home consoles were squeezed out this week by the portable platforms. Wii sales were almost identical to the previous week at 18,095 units, with the Xbox 360 continuing a sudden collapse in sales – down almost 3,000 units to 5,441. For the first time in several months it was almost beaten by the PlayStation 2, which rose slightly to 5,067 units. Overall in the software top 50, there were 22 titles for the Nintendo DS, 10 for the PSP, nine for the Wii, four each for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, and one for the Xbox 360.