The Nintendo DS was the best-selling platform in Japan during the month of August, according to new data from Japanese publisher and market researcher Enterbrain.
Sales were low in general due to the time of year – but also down 29 percent compared to August 2007. The market as a whole was down 17 percent on the previous year, although software sales declined by only 6.3 percent.
In data that broadly agrees with weekly figures from rival chart compiler Media Create, Enterbrain calculates that the Nintendo DS sold 333,000 units last month. This is the first time the Nintendo DS has been the top-seller in Japan for several months.
The PSP was in second place with 292,000 unit sales, and Enterbrain speculates that anticipation of the forthcoming PSP-3000 model could be responsible for the slowdown. Sales of key title
Monster Hunter Portable 2 G have also finally begun to decline significantly in the last few weeks.
The Wii was the best selling home console during the month, with 181,000 unit sales, followed by the PlayStation 3 on 53,000 units. Thanks to the release of Namco Bandai’s
Tales of Vesperia Microsoft also had an exceptionally good month with 45,000 units of the Xbox 360 sold.
Although this only just equals the total of the PlayStation 2 for August, it is three times more than at the same time last year. It also comes despite severe stock problems following the release of
Tales of Vesperia – which Enterbrain calculate has sold 133,000 copies so far.
The top-selling game of the month was
Rhythm Tengoku Gold (aka
Rhythm Heaven) on Nintendo DS with 625,000 units sold. Sega’s
Phantasy Star Portable was the second-highest seller on 572,000 units, becoming the fifth-highest-selling PSP game of all time in Japan.
