News Article

3DS Soars Back to the Top of the Japanese Hardware Chart

Posted by Trevor Chan

The back and forth struggle between 3DS and PSP begins

After a dominating start, sales of the 3DS in Japan have slowly been on the decrease and more recently, have been overtaken by the PlayStation Portable in the hardware sales chart. Now, it seems the 3DS is regaining momentum as the sales figures from last week are revealed.

For the period starting 11th and ending 17th April, Nintendo sold 28,252 3DS consoles and ranked first in the chart, besting the PSP which came second with 23,846 units. Both handhelds saw a drop in sales compared to the previous week where the PSP outsold the 3DS with 35,478 and 32,910 consoles sold, respectively.

Two new 3DS games were launched at the beginning of last week which may have played some part in the 3DS's return to the top spot. Nintendo's Pilotwings Resort entered the software chart at #6 by selling 26,554 copies, whereas Konami's Professional Baseball Spirits 2011 just managed to secure a place inside the top ten by shifting 11,644 copies and placing #9. The only other game on a Nintendo platform was the DS role-playing game Professional 2 Dragon Quest Monsters Joker from Square Enix which sold 291,769 copies at #3 and has selling consistently well since its release late March.

Considering there's four PSP titles in the top ten, three of which are new releases, and three PlayStation 3 titles taking up the remaining slots; the 3DS and its games haven't been doing too badly, but they can certainly do a lot better.

[via 4gamer.net, m-create.com]

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User Comments (23)

Link79

#3

Link79 said:

IGN wrote an article on 3DS sales declining too. They make it sound like 3DS will crash and burn. They must have forgot it's just barely getting started. The good stuff will be here soon then PSP will be in trouble.

warioswoods

#5

warioswoods said:

Software drives sales, and Nintendo didn't get out the big guns on that front just yet.

Also, I like the colorful smiling girl, even with the wire plugged into her head.

Link79

#6

Link79 said:

The 3DS launch was pretty lame. Street fighter IV was the only game I even wanted. Once they get the big guns out it'll be fine.

MasterGraveheart

#8

MasterGraveheart said:

That girl in the picture looks like Jubilee. Marvel Studios! Hire her for the role of Jubilee in the next film!

motang

#9

motang said:

I love it when it's back and forth, I am thinking about getting a PSP Go, since the production on it has been stopped and there might be a price drop on it.

Hokori

#10

Hokori said:

Be mine...

Ill give 10 picarats to anyone who can guess what Im talking about

Glade

#15

Glade said:

After eShop, OoT,Kid Icarus Uprising,Mercenaries, and all the most wanted games come out, the competition will surely die!!!! :D

Jkjk they'll be around..... somewhere

S_T_K

#18

S_T_K said:

What real 1st party titles are coming out? yeah i know the names but Nintendo aren't really developing the games there just overseeing them
:P

DrDaisy

#19

DrDaisy said:

"She bought hers with Pilotwings Resort, she told us"
Are you kidding or did you actually talk to her? What's her name?

jerryo

#20

jerryo said:

"soars" is a bit of an overstatement but it's ok. we've seen worse :D

you should save that for June :)

Infernapeking

#22

Infernapeking said:

Super Mario 3DS, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil Revelation, and Pokemon will change all that soon.

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