3DS retakes lead in Japanese weekly charts

The release of first party title Pilotwings Resort has helped Nintendo's new portable regain its position as the best-selling hardware in Japan, although overall hardware sales remain low - despite a recovery in software.

The 3DS sold 28,252 units last week in Japan, which although it represents at drop of over 4,500 units has kept it above the PSP's total of 24,053 (including 207 sales of the PSPgo).

According to the latest figures, as obtained by website Andriasang, PSP sales fell by over 11,500 units - despite a number one in the software charts.

By comparison PlayStation 3 sales were static at 22,265 and Wii sales dropped by only a few hundred to 8,122. The Nintendo DS family of consoles saw sales drop by 2,000 units to 14,956. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 sales were largely unchanged at 1,898 and 1,261, respectively.

The best-selling software of the week was the latest in Namco Bandai's long-running Super Robot Wars series, with a strong 307,019 debut sales.

The other big release of the week was Konami's latest Pro Baseball Spirits title. The game sold 86,486 units on the PlayStation 3, 71,264 on the PSP and 11,644 on the 3DS.

Atlus' portable version of role-playing game Persona 2: Innocent Sin sold 62,721 units at number five in the charts, while Nintendo's Pilotwings Resort managed only 26,554 at number six.

Although a launch title in Europe Pilotwings has only now been released in Japan. Despite the low sales though it and Konami's baseball title appear to have been enough to stimulate hardware sales.

Also new at number seven in the software charts is the PlayStation 3 version of Homefront, with 22,111 sales. Given Japan's often fraught relations with Korea the antagonist in the game is not referenced by name in the Japanese release.