Japanese Wii U Sales Dropped Below The Vita Last Week

According to Japanese sales tracker Media Create, weekly sales of Nintendo’s Wii U console dropped to a new all-time low for the week ending February 24, 2013, putting the console just behind Sony’s struggling PlayStation Vita.

For the week, Wii U sales totaled just 9,633 units, down slightly from 10,744 units during the prior week. The poor showing left Nintendo’s new HD console in a disappointing fourth place on the hardware sales charts, flanked by the PS Vita with 11,456 units and the PSP with 8,981 units. Sony’s PlayStation 3 claimed the number two spot on the chart with 18,529 units (up from 16,934 in the prior week).

Japanese Wii U sales started out strong when the system launched last December, with 308K units sold during it’s opening week. The following week console sales were cut in half to 126.9K units, and they have continued on that downward trajectory right up until this last week’s new low point. Currently life-to-date sales for the Wii U stand at just 791K units.

On the flip side of the coin, Nintendo’s 3DS continued it’s dominance over the Japanese market last week by selling another 74K units (a drop from 97.9K in the prior week), bringing its LTD Japan sales up to a whopping 10.6 million units. That puts Nintendo’s handheld well above the PS3’s LTD sales of 9 million units, and just over half of the PSP’s 19.7 million LTD sales.

In terms of software sales for the week, Nintendo’s 3DS claimed 11 spots in the top 20 chart, followed by the PSP with 3 titles, the PS3 and Wii U with 2 each, and 1 title for both the DS and Wii.

Konami’s Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for the PS3 debuted in the top spot with 308K copies sold, followed by Square Enix’s Dragon Quest VII (3DS) with 75K copies, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS) with 74K copies, and Namco Bandi’s Magi: The Labyrinth of Beginning (3DS) with 29K copies.