The nation of Japan started 2009 off rather slowly in hardware sales terms. Buying slowed to a crawl overseas, as they tend to do, at the turn of a new year.

Looking at the drop-off, you’d think it’s rather grim, but that’s the New Year’s holiday hangover in action. No new video game releases means far less clamoring for shiny hardware. Still, the Nintendo DSi managed to squeeze out another 78,000 units, with the PSP lagging close behind with 60,000 sold.

There’s not much we can sex up here. Everyone’s in their right place and selling about half of what they did the week prior. The numbers are after this.

• Nintendo DSi – 78,201
• PSP – 60,495
• Wii – 41,243
• PlayStation 3 – 28,144
• Nintendo DS Lite – 23,429
• Xbox 360 – 10,554
• PlayStation 2 – 6,628

Sales-day is almost over, kids. Thanks for bearing with us while we choke you with data!

With virtually nothing hitting Japanese retail shelves this past week, 2008’s biggest releases got another chance to shine, sales-wise. That keeps Square-Enix’s Dissidia: Final Fantasy at the number one spot for one more week.

Somewhat surprisingly, Capcom’s mega-hit Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G rockets up to the second place spot. That’s the budget version, the “PSP the Best” version, for the record. This week sees a few more titles return to the top ten, including Gran Turismo Prologue Spec III which lands just below Level 5’s White Knight Chronicles.

Yes, it’s a slow week for software sales excitement. But the numbers are just as savory as ever. Read on for the top thirty bestsellers in Japan from January 5 to 11.

01. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) – 49,000 / 819,000
02. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (PSP) – 34,000 / 305,000
03. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) – 33,000 / 1,568,000
04. Wii Fit (Wii) – 30,000 / 3,155,000
05. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS) – 29,000 / 645,000
06. White Knight Chronicles (PS3) – 26,000 / 305,000
07. Gran Turismo Prologue Spec III (PS3) – 25,000 / 292,000
08. Gundam Musou 2 (PS2) – 25,000 / 225,000
09. Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS) – 23,000 / 1,021,000
10. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – 22,000 / 2,155,000

11. Momotarou Dentetsu: 20-Shuunen (DS)
12. Animal Crossing City Folk (Wii)
13. Phantasy Star 0 (DS)
14. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
15. Gundam Musou 2 (PS3)
16. Power Pro Kun Pocket 11 (DS)
17. Musou Orochi Sairin (PSP)
18. Professor Layton and the Final Time Journey (DS)
19. Wii Sports (Wii)
20. Pikmin (Play On Wii) (Wii)
21. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 (PS3)
22. Animal Crossing Wild World (DS)
23. Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi (DS)
24. Meccha! Taiko Drum Master DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken (DS)
25. Taiko no Tetsujin Wii (Wii)
26. Tales of Hearts (Anime Movie Edition) (DS)
27. Karaoke Joysound Wii (Wii)
28. Bokujou Monogatari: Youkoso Kaze no Bazaar (DS)
29. Mario Kart DS (DS)
30. Kenka Banchou 3: Zenkoku Seiha (PSP)

Media Create Weekly Software Sales [Gpara]

Japan’s best-selling Dissidia: Final Fantasy helped the PSP outsell the Wii this week, even though it couldn’t muster enough sales to dethrone the Nintendo DSi. Also seeing a big boost was the PlayStation 3.

It even outsold the Nintendo DS Lite, still going strong in Japan to the tune of almost 50,000 handhelds sold per week. With recent PS3 releases also showing up the Media Create software sales charts — Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III and World Soccer Winning Eleven 2009 — we’d almost think Japanese gamers were starting to come around to gaming in 4D!

The hardware race for the week of December 29th to January 4th ended like so.

• Nintendo DSi – 182,518
• PSP – 157,088
• Wii – 119,965
• PlayStation 3 – 60,654
• Nintendo DS – 48,160
• Xbox 360 – 19,694
• PlayStation 2 – 12,548

The holidays were very good to Nintendo in Japan, with hardware sales big enough to translate to a second bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Eve. We’re talking 380,000 game machines moved in a week.

Leading Nintendo’s hardware charge was the Nintendo DSi. Sales were actually down, week to week, but still far enough ahead to claim the top spot. Also down was the PSP, which dropped from its Dissidia: Final Fantasy release week high.

Seeing the biggest gain, however, percentage wise, was the PlayStation 3. That was thanks to the release of Level 5’s PS3 exclusive role-playing game White Knight Chronicles. Not enough to push it past Nintendo DS Lite numbers, but a step in the right direction for Sony in Japan. Perhaps the Japanese releases of Yakuza 3, Demon’s Souls and Street Fighter IV launches in early February will help spark PS3 “momentum.”

Not much happening on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 front, but the full chart from December 22 to 28 looks like…

• Nintendo DSi – 188,697
• Wii – 134,958
• PSP – 118,765
• Nintendo DS – 56,453
• PlayStation 3 – 45,989
• Xbox 360 – 13,011
• PlayStation 2 – 10,404

Weekly sales of the Nintendo DSi in Japan have doubled over where they were just two weeks prior, moving an impressive 173,000 this week. Overall, Nintendo sold almost 300,000 hardware units to Japanese consumers.

That’s with over 90,000 Wiis and more than 30,000 Nintendo DS Lites, according to Media Create. PlayStation 3 sales held steady, moving nearly three times what the Xbox 360 sold in a week. The PSP still continues to perform extremely well, even with only a handful of games in the top thirty.

Weekly hardware sales for the week of December 8th to the 14th are as follows.

• Nintendo DSi – 173,693
• Wii – 91,641
• PSP – 71,540
• PlayStation 3 – 33,688
• Nintendo DS – 31,120
• Xbox 360 – 11,797
• PlayStation 2- 6,659

Media Create Weekly Sales

Wii was up. PSP was down. PS3 was down. Nintendo DS Lite was down. Xbox 360 was down. PS2 was up. Look, that’s all the colour you’re gonna get, guys. Sorry. Writing about hardware and software sales all day is mind-numbing. I’m going to go look at pictures of puppies or something while you enjoy this week’s hardware chart.

• Nintendo DSi – 126,648
• Wii – 56,702
• PSP – 54,782
• PlayStation 3 – 30,309
• Nintendo DS – 12,096
• Xbox 360 – 9,988
• PlayStation 2 – 5,743

Curiously, the Nintendo DS Lite also had a very good week, which may illustrate that supply of the DSi can’t keep up with demand in the face of Chrono Trigger DS’s release — and a top ten dominated by DS software.

The PlayStation 3 holds strong while the Xbox 360 sees a big boost alongside the release of The Last Remnant. For the full hardware contest, read on.

• Nintendo DSi – 88,843
• PSP – 61,226
• Wii – 35,298
• Nintendo DS – 18,580
• PlayStation 3 – 17,436
• Xbox 360 – 15,474
• PlayStation 2 – 5,281

The PlayStation 3 has plenty of “The Best” label budget releases hitting before the end of the year, which should help keep its momentum (yes, I did) going. The release of Gundam Musou 2 will probably help the long-suffering console keep sales higher.

Xbox 360 has its own version of Gundam Musou 2 en route, as well as Fable II. We’ll be interested to see how the latter fares in the coming weeks.

• Nintendo DSi – 85,327
• PSP – 38,153
• Wii – 26,787
• PlayStation 3 – 17,448
• Xbox 360 – 7,983
• PlayStation 2 – 5,421
• Nintendo DS – 3,559

Wii and PSP sales are mostly steady, with the former selling nowhere near as spectacularly as it does on this side of the Pacific. For the week of Nov. 3 to 9, here’s how the Japanese spent.

• Nintendo DSi – 104,897
• PSP – 43,726
• Wii – 24,726
• PlayStation 3 – 18,354
• Xbox 360 – 12,759
• Nintendo DS – 8,381
• PlayStation 2 – 5,743

But it’s the Nintendo DSi sitting pretty atop the Japanese sales charts this week, with over 170,000 units sold. That’s why there’s a new cool grey slice on this week’s chart and a big reason for that wee key lime slice for the Xbox 360, which assumes the position of last place again.

• Nintendo DSi – 171,925
• PSP – 50,358
• PlayStation 3 – 39,587
• Wii – 23,123
• Nintendo DS – 16,369
• PlayStation 2 – 6,714
• Xbox 360 – 6,119