PSP back on top of Japan’s sales charts after 19 months

With the release of Sony PSP Slim & Lite accompanied by Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+, Sony’s handheld dominated Japan‘s video game hardware sales this September. Numbers show 448,000 Slims blasted off the shelves, adding up to a record-setting total of 529,000 PSP units sold for the month.

The last time Sony was on top date back to February 2006 when the Nintendo DS had a shortage in supply, making it a 19-month interval before the PSP took the lead once more. Nintendo’s handheld still sold 391,752 even with the Slim craze, but the Wii sold considerably less at 168,220.

Aside from the hot PSP Slim & Lite, sales skyrocketed thanks to a couple of big PSP titles. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII from Square Enix sold 663,820 copies, while Konami‘s Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+ contributed 129,873 copies. Famitsu gave credit to extra peripherals for making the PSP more appealing, saying “many retailers have reported sellouts of PSP peripherals, like the One-Seg terrestrial digital TV tuner and PSP to TV AV cables.”

The Sony PlayStation 2 proved it’s still kicking after selling 69,400 units this September. Sony’s next-gen console, the PlayStation 3, followed close behind at 66,444 sold. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 only got 13,242 units off, but Halo 3 put up a fight and sold 61,143 copies to take the 18th spot of the top 20 software sales chart.

On a side note, Wii Sports has broken the 2 million mark and became the first ever title to do so on the Wii. Other Nintendo titles remain strong, with top 20 mainstays Mario Party 8, Wii Play, Mario Kart DS, and others still on the list. You’ll find how many copies they sold on the list above.

With the release of Sony PSP Slim & Lite accompanied by Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+, Sony’s handheld dominated Japan‘s video game hardware sales this September. Numbers show 448,000 Slims blasted off the shelves, adding up to a record-setting total of 529,000 PSP units sold for the month.

The last time Sony was on top date back to February 2006 when the Nintendo DS had a shortage in supply, making it a 19-month interval before the PSP took the lead once more. Nintendo’s handheld still sold 391,752 even with the Slim craze, but the Wii sold considerably less at 168,220.

Aside from the hot PSP Slim & Lite, sales skyrocketed thanks to a couple of big PSP titles. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII from Square Enix sold 663,820 copies, while Konami‘s Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+ contributed 129,873 copies. Famitsu gave credit to extra peripherals for making the PSP more appealing, saying “many retailers have reported sellouts of PSP peripherals, like the One-Seg terrestrial digital TV tuner and PSP to TV AV cables.”

The Sony PlayStation 2 proved it’s still kicking after selling 69,400 units this September. Sony’s next-gen console, the PlayStation 3, followed close behind at 66,444 sold. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 only got 13,242 units off, but Halo 3 put up a fight and sold 61,143 copies to take the 18th spot of the top 20 software sales chart.

On a side note, Wii Sports has broken the 2 million mark and became the first ever title to do so on the Wii. Other Nintendo titles remain strong, with top 20 mainstays Mario Party 8, Wii Play, Mario Kart DS, and others still on the list. You’ll find how many copies they sold on the list above.