Sales of the Micro return to Earth while a cute group of monsters (not named Pokémon) top the charts for the week ending September 25th...

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

Overall sales for the week dropped off sharply for both hardware and software. On the hardware side, sales of the new GBA Micro dropped considerably from its opening week leaving it in third closely behind a resurgent PSP, still basking in its new color and sudden stream of new games. The GBA platform overall remained pretty strong as sales of the good old SP stayed steady (perhaps the new brighter SPs are finding enthusiastic buyers in Japan as well). The DS however, resumed its top spot after loaning it to its new portable little brother for a week. This performance despite the fact no new software for the dual-screened wonder was released...the power of Tamagotchi?

Take a look at this week's numbers below:

On the software side, the new DS game in that other little monster series, Tamagotchi, reigned supreme. Fresh off an extremely strong opening week, Bandai's Tamagotchi Corner Shop had little trouble holding off PSP entries Winning Eleven and Gundam Battle Tactics and even new PS2 releases. Of course, Brain Training and Gentle Brain Exercises continued their weekly steady march towards impressive (and steady) sales numbers. There is a whole lotta new folks finding out about that game every week apparently.

For the GBA, Famicom Mini: Super Mario Bros. again proved popular with sales in the 50k region. Heck, that would have seemed ridiculous to many even last week with the Micro's launch. The staying power of a beloved classic truly can't be underestimated.