The DS finds many more new fans during the week ending December 18th...

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

Hardware sales in Japan continued to exhibit a considerable upswing in line with the holiday period. These were again led by the Nintendo DS, which itself reeled in over 400k new Japanese players (many recieved as presents, Media-Create notes) and continued the trend of DS sales in overdrive. The lofty figure came close to matching the portable's actual launch week total and was certainly one of the most impressive non-launch week totals for any platform in Japan, a heady feat for sure if not for the fact that next week's figure is on track to eclipse launch week sales. DS hardware sales on the year have now surpassed 3 million in Japan, with likely continued robust sales sure to push the total near 4 million by years end - generally, the next two weeks are considered the busiest for the industry.

Software has clearly been the driving force, and with the notable success of Animal Crossing and Tamagotchi it is looking like women are a large part of that drive. Meanwhile, looking in on sales of other Nintendo hardware, overall healthy gains from previous weeks (including 17k sales for the Cube) were clearly overshadowed by Nintendo's current darling. The GBA SP rose to 4th on the charts, while the brand new Xbox 360 plummeted with a disappointing second week performance.

The week's console numbers:

(Apologies for failing to update last week's software chart: for those interested, those results follow the current chart.)

In software, again despite a strong PS2 title debut (in this case Namco's Tales of the Abyss), Nintendo's portable power again was evident. Reflecting the staggering hardware sales, the DS alone placed 6 titles in the top 10 headed by continued six figure sales by Nintendo's own Animal Crossing and Mario Kart DS. Bandai's huge surprise title, Tamagotchi Corner Shop, also weighed in impressively. And unsurprisingly, the ever-popular Brain Training titles both recieved sales boosts as well (with Brain Training for Adults alone now approaching 1 million in sales). Brain Training 2 and Mario and Luigi are up next for the DS, and the system is likely to see even higher sales over the next couple weeks.

For the GBA, fan favorite Final Fantasy IV debuted to solid, nearly six-figure sales. Heralded by many veteran FFIV players as the definitive version of the classic, sales figures include those of the limited edition bundle boasting a GBA Micro packed with a special FFIV-themed faceplate. And with that, lets allow the word "sales" to take a rest...

Weekly software numbers follow:

And last week's belated software top 10, posted cheapie-style:

• 1 PS2 Rogue Galaxy 237,631
• 2 DS Mario Kart DS 219,391
• 3 PS2 Ryu ga Gotoku 134,521
• 4 DS Animal Crossing: Wild World 121,457
• 5 PS2 Momotaro Railway 15 65,334
• 6 DS Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force 64,475
• 7 PS2 Resident Evil 4 63,698
• 8 PSP Monster Hunter Portable 63,009
• 9 GBA Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Red Rescue Force 61,648
• 10 DS Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop! 47,905