PSP Slim Storms Japan, Wii Sales Drop in September

October 10, 2007 | By: James Brightman

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The PSP actually sold more than three times as much as the Wii in Japan during September as the new slim model and software like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII drove sales. The Wii meanwhile saw a dip in sales, although Wii Sports did pass the 2 million units milestone.

The Famitsu Marketing Data Service has provided GameDaily BIZ with the latest video game data from Japan, covering the period from August 27 through September 30. For the first time in many months a Nintendo platform was not the top seller. Sony's redesigned PSP took top honors this time with 529,297 units sold. The resurgence of the PSP helped drive the hardware market up 22.9 percent, making up for the slight drop (1.3 percent) in the software market. Overall, the Japanese video game market was up 8.6 percent year-over-year.

"The PSP captured the center stage of September's hardware market with its new, thinner and lighter version that was released on September 20. The new version allowed the PSP to break the 500,000-unit monthly sales threshold for the first time in its history with 529,000 units sold (448,000 of which were from the new model). The handheld also became the month's best-selling gaming system again after the 19-month interval since the last time in February 2006, when the DS was facing supply shortages," Famitsu commented. "As many retailers have reported sellouts of PSP peripherals, like the One-Seg terrestrial digital TV tuner and PSP to TV AV cables, it seems safe to say that not only the slimmer body and widened software selection but also these unique peripherals, that are making the PSP more appealing to users."

While the PSP was #1 for the period, Nintendo's DS Lite certainly continued to sell well with 391,752 units sold. On the console side, the Wii was still the top seller but its total was a far cry from previous months with just 168,220. This is probably partially attributable to the fact that there weren't many significant new Wii software titles in September. Following the Wii, the PS2 sold 69,400 units edging out the PS3 at 66,444. Microsoft's Xbox 360 lagged behind with just 13,242 units. Although, on a positive note Halo 3 did crack the top 20 software chart at #18 with 61,143 copies sold.

The software that helped spur PSP adoption for the month included Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII from Square Enix (663,820 units) and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+ from Konami (129,873 units). With the exception of Mario Strikers Charged (just 52,856 units), Wii software sellers were mostly catalog titles such as Wii Play and Mario Party 8. Famitsu did note, however, that Wii Sports (which is not a pack-in game in Japan) "finally crossed the two million-copy milestone during this data collection period and has become the platform's first double-million-seller."

The complete top 20 list is provided below.