The last week of 2005 ending New Year's Day was DS-dominated, with a certain sequel to Brain Training easily topping the charts.

Courtesy of Media-Create, we have the most recent sales figures from Japan.

Perhaps not even being "Sold Out" can slow the DS in Japan these days (next week's numbers will perhaps better illustrate the level of scarcity Nintendo has on its hands). Though supply issues likely had a detrimental effect on the week's totals, the DS nevertheless again outsold all other platforms combined. Sales totals exceed 4 million for the year, with 2 million in December alone. New Year's Week, generally considered an even heavier shopping period than Christmas in Japan, ultimately produced lower console sales totals nearly across the board (the lone exception of note being the Xbox 360, "buoyed" by the release of DOA4.) Software sales were, however, expectedly robust.

The week's console numbers:

Software sales for the week proved tremendous, with the DS obviously showing its status as Japan's latest craze by taking 8 of the top 10 slots. Though a wide range of software demonstrated the varied distribution of the DS userbase, "non-games" clearly reigned supreme behind new release Brain Training for Adults 2. The sequel rang up impressive first week sales in excess of 400k and appears well on its way to achieving the million-seller milestone that the first Brain Training earned only last week. Speaking of the first Brain Training, in a testament to the anomaly that has been its sales pattern (dropping out of the top 10 one week only to resurface the next, week after week after week of consistent sales numbers), the original itself achieved its highest total in months despite the presence of its sequel - a startling result. It will be interesting to observe just how long the market sustains the two side-by-side.

The rest of the top 10 was populated by popular DS mainstays (such as Animal Crossing Wild World, Gentle Brain Training and Mario Kart DS) and new PS2 RPGs. A second new DS release, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, had a solid debut in the six figures.

Weekly software numbers follow: