More Japanese Sales Data, w/e January 18 to 24, 2010

After giving up the first place spot to Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for a couple weeks, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii returns to the top of the weekly Media Create sales charts.

Media Create It was still a pretty good week for PSP software, however, with Sega's Valkyria Chronicles debuting in second place with 94,000 copies sold, followed by Namco Bandai's Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces. Kingdom Hearts and Monster Hunter helped the PlayStation Portable snag four of the top ten spots, the rest occupied by Wii and DS software.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 debut, by the way, was better than that of its PlayStation 3 predecessor. While the Japanese install base for each PlayStation platform was markedly different for each game's release, I wouldn't be surprised to see future Valkyria games sticking to a handheld platform.

Here are the top thirty games in Japan, according to Media Create, for the week of January 18 to 24, 2010.

01. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 111,000 / 3,117,000
02. Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP) - 94,000 / NEW
03. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces (PSP) - 76,000 / NEW
04. Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (PSP) - 60,000 / 683,000
05. Tomodachi Collection (DS) - 45,000 / 2,696,000
06. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 34,000 / 1,550,000
07. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii) - 23,000 / 96,000
08. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (the Best) - 16,000 / 102,000
09. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 16,000 / 1,707,000
10. Inazuma Eleven 2: Fire / Blizzard (DS) - 14,000 / 1,047,000

More, including hardware numbers, after the break..

11. Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver (DS)
12. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
13. Tekken 6 (PSP)
14. Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires (PSP)
15. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
16. Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku (DS)
17. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
18. Phantasy Star Portable 2 (PSP)
19. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
20. PokePark Wii: Pikachu no Daibouken (Wii)
21. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (PSP)
22. Taiko no Tatsujin Wii Dodoon to 2 Yome! (Wii)
23. Momotarou Dentetsu 2010 Senkoku Ishin no Hero Daisyuugou ! No Ken (Wii)
24. Layton Kyouju to Majin no Fue (DS)
25. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
26. Wii Sports (Wii)
27. Kentoushi: Gladiator Begins (PSP)
28. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010 (PS3)
29. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (PS3)
30. Samurai Warriors 3 (Wii)

Over in the hardware side of things, Sony's PlayStation Portable continues its reign at the top of Japan's hardware chart this week, in part thanks to Valkyria Chronicles 2 and continued sales of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. But the Wii is catching up on the PSP.

With New Super Mario Bros. Wii continuing to sell spectacularly in Japan, Wii console hardware stays ahead of the pack, outselling its nearest competitor the PlayStation 3 by a good 18,000 units and its non-competitor, the Xbox 360, by about fourteen times over.

The Nintendo DS platform, spread across the DSi, DSi LL and DS Lite, is doing just fine for itself too, combining to sell another 49,000-plus handhelds in Japan. The full numbers, from sales tracker Media Create, are as follows.