Gaming Industry Sales Analysis: Sept. 16 to 22, 2007

VGChartz.com has just put up the sales numbers for the weeks ending on Sept. 22 (in the United States) and Sept. 23 (in Japan), 2007. Here are the juicy tidbits:

In the United Stated and North America, the top 5 best selling software titles for the week were:

Wii Sports at 92K units sold, Heavenly Sword(PS3) at 56K, Bioshock(36) at 54K, Wii Play at 52K and My Sims(Wii) at 46K. Nothing really notable here, once again, Wii sports is #1(as its packaged with the Nintendo Wii, meaning for every Wii sold, 1 Wii Sports is sold). Heavenly Sword has held up well in its second week, especially considering the PS3 user base. Bioshock continues to sell very well, after more than a month from its release. The only real shocker is that Metroid Prime 3 has dropped somewhat considerably.

For hardware sales, the 360 sold 104K units this week, followed by the Wii at 93K and the PS3 at a distant third with 27K units sold. Obviously, the big news here is that, for the first time in months, the Wii has lost its #1 position. This is no doubt in anticipation for the big Halo 3 release(note: these numbers are for the week BEFORE the H3 release). This is a big victory for Microsoft. Since the release of the Wii, it has been selling like hot cakes, and only recently has stabilized in the 80-90K region. The 360, meanwhile, has picked up from 35K units/week sold in July to more then 100K this week. This is due to the price drop in early August and several blockbuster hits in late August, including Madden 08 and Bioshock, as well as the hype for Halo 3. PS3 numbers have continued to slide from 55K in late August, and is once again within striking distance of the Game Boy Advance. The PS2, however, is still selling consistently at 50K units per week.

As for handhelds, the DS continues to dominate the market, but the PSP rose considerably this week and is still riding the wave of the redesigned PSP Slim model. The DS sold 120K units, and the PSP came in at 78K units sold.

In Japan, home consoles continue to be in a slump. The Wii still leads, selling about 25K this week, although this is nearly a third of the number it was selling about a month ago. The PS3 has also dropped considerably, now selling about 12K a week. The 360 got quite a boost this week, selling nearly 2K units, but is still not enjoying any success in that market. Once again, the boost in 360 sales is due to Halo 3, which Famitsu magazine(a Japanese gaming magazine, known to be very critical) gave a 35/40.

On the other hand, the handheld systems in Japan have been having a lot of success. The PSP sold 277K units this past week, a HUGE jump in units sold. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core(2nd week) and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops+(1st week), as well as the release of the PSP Slim all contribute to this huge jump. The DS sold 68K units, driven by the recently released Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon 2: Time/Darkness games. Together, the sales for the 2 games put them at #1 in Japan this week.