Vita hardware sales surge but 3DS wins software in Japanese charts

As expected the Vita has seen tremendous hardware sales growth since the price cut in late February, but the 3DS is still dominating the software side of things - although Dynasty Warriors made its expected number one debut.

Sony said recently that Vita sales had quadrupled since the price cut, but it may have been conservative in its estimates. In the week prior to the cut, the Vita shifted 11,456 units, but between February 25 and March 3, the period covered in these week's charts, Japanese consumers snapped up 62,543 units.

The 3DS still outsold its portable rival, though, if you consider the standard unit (27,174) and XL model (49,317), which remained fairly steady week to week.

1. PlayStation Vita – 62,543 (11,456)
2. 3DS LL – 50,265 (49,317)
3. 3DS – 27,174 (25,412)
4. PlayStation 3 – 25,725 (18,529)
5. PSP – 11,171 (8,981)
6. Wii U – 10,021 (9,633)
   Wii – 1,383 (1,317)
7. Xbox 360 – 486 (473)

On the software side of things, Dynasty Warriors 8 released to typically strong sales with 203,224 units sold; for comparison, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance made over 300,000 sales in its first week. Expect the latest Omega Force effort to hang around in the charts for a while, though.

Elsewhere, it was all 3DS, all the time. The portable console accounted for 11 of the top 20 titles. The Vita managed just three despite all its new hardware sales, and of these, only one was a new release.

There were nine new releases this week in total, a healthy result.

The full software chart below shows platform, publisher, release date, the current week's sales, and lifetime sales to date in parentheses.

Media Create software chart
1. [PS3] Dynasty Warriors 8 (Tecmo Koei, 02/28/13) – 203,224 (New)
2. [3DS] Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies (Level-5, 02/28/13) – 130,686 (New)
3. [PSV] Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (Marvelous AQL, 02/28/13) – 94,324 (New)
4. [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission (Namco Bandai, 02/28/13) – 88,386 (New)
5. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) – 73,615 (2,739,654)
6. [PS3] Macross 30: Ginga o Tsunagu Utagoe (Namco Bandai, 02/28/13) – 63,089 (New)
7. [PSV] Phantasy Star Online 2 (Sega, 02/28/13) – 61,227 (New)
8. [PS3] Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Konami, 02/21/13) – 60,394 (369,075)
9. [PSP] Shining Ark (Sega, 02/28/13) – 54,837 (New)
10. [3DS] Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden (Square Enix, 02/07/13) – 46,878 (1,135,220)
11. [3DS] Touch Detective: Nameko Big Breeding (Success, 02/28/13) – 28,367 (New)
12. [PSP] D.C. III Plus (Kadokawa Games, 02/28/13) – 12,444 (New)
13. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo, 07/28/12) – 10,208 (1,942,364)
14. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!) (Capcom, 11/15/12) – 9,177 (244,642)
15. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition (Namco Bandai, 11/29/12) – 7,737 (413,787)
16. [PSV] Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (SCE, 12/17/11) – 7,616 (184,192)
17. [3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Chibi Dragon and the Mysterious Orb (Namco Bandai, 07/12/12) – 5,983 (435,146)
18. [3DS] Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic (Namco Bandai, 02/21/13) – 5,815 (35,217)
19. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12/01/11) – 5,307 (1,988,455)
20. [3DS] Fantasy Life (Level-5, 12/27/12) – 5,236 (241,576)

Charts courtesy of Gematsu.