PSP vs. Nintendo DS – Closest Race Since SNES vs. Genesis

Those who grew up with a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis might remember the era as the time of the best video games ever made. There was a reason for that – the competition. Nintendo and Sega were neck and neck in the race for console supremacy, and to edge each other out they were forced to create the best games they could.

Now we’re looking at another great race. The PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS are even closer than the SNES and Genesis were in North America. The NPD has just recently released their sales data and the numbers of units Sony and Nintendo sold in March are astonishingly close. Not only is this a fight between the DS and PSP, the Game Boy Advance is taking a sizable chunk as well. The DS sold 184,000 units while the PSP just barely edged it out with 186,000 units. The GBA edged them both out by selling 201,000.

March was also a great example of how the close race makes for great game releases. Metroid Prime Hunters, Tetris DS, and Super Princess Peach all saw a release for the DS. The PSP had one of its best months with Daxter, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, and Mega Man: Powered Up. Of course, the biggest game released wasn’t on the handheld at all. The PS2 got a little something we call Kingdom Hearts 2 (sold over 614,000 copies).

Keep in mind that this is the American battle. The PSP’s still screwed in Japan where the DS sells around 800,000 monthly with the PSP selling around 120,000 monthly and GBA reaching maybe 50,000. Funny how such a small country buys so much more.

US Monthly Sales (March 2006) – Rounded
PlayStation 2: 273,000 [39,251,931]
Game Boy Advance: 201,000 [37,286,846]
Xbox 360: 192,000 [1,209,343]
PlayStation Portable: 186,000 [4,170,434]
Nintendo DS: 184,000 [4,308,665]
Xbox: 83,000 [15,698,997]
Gamecube: 63,000 [12,008,291]

Those who grew up with a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis might remember the era as the time of the best video games ever made. There was a reason for that – the competition. Nintendo and Sega were neck and neck in the race for console supremacy, and to edge each other out they were forced to create the best games they could.

Now we’re looking at another great race. The PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS are even closer than the SNES and Genesis were in North America. The NPD has just recently released their sales data and the numbers of units Sony and Nintendo sold in March are astonishingly close. Not only is this a fight between the DS and PSP, the Game Boy Advance is taking a sizable chunk as well. The DS sold 184,000 units while the PSP just barely edged it out with 186,000 units. The GBA edged them both out by selling 201,000.

March was also a great example of how the close race makes for great game releases. Metroid Prime Hunters, Tetris DS, and Super Princess Peach all saw a release for the DS. The PSP had one of its best months with Daxter, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, and Mega Man: Powered Up. Of course, the biggest game released wasn’t on the handheld at all. The PS2 got a little something we call Kingdom Hearts 2 (sold over 614,000 copies).

Keep in mind that this is the American battle. The PSP’s still screwed in Japan where the DS sells around 800,000 monthly with the PSP selling around 120,000 monthly and GBA reaching maybe 50,000. Funny how such a small country buys so much more.

US Monthly Sales (March 2006) – Rounded
PlayStation 2: 273,000 [39,251,931]
Game Boy Advance: 201,000 [37,286,846]
Xbox 360: 192,000 [1,209,343]
PlayStation Portable: 186,000 [4,170,434]
Nintendo DS: 184,000 [4,308,665]
Xbox: 83,000 [15,698,997]
Gamecube: 63,000 [12,008,291]