Analyst firm Enterbrain has predicted that the 3DS will lead the Japanese market this year.

While the 3DS launch sales were slower than some anticipated analyst firm Enterbrain has predicted it will become one of the biggest selling consoles of the year in Japan. Since its launch in February the 3DS has sold 996,019 units in Japan, with 400,000 of those sold during the opening weekend.

Enterbrain predict it will sell 2,868,000 units by the end of the year, meaning it will have to sell an average of 58,499 units a week to reach that figure. With a few big releases around the corner, alongside the Christmas period at the end of the year, the 3DS is bound to see successful weeks but in the last few weeks it has frequently been outsold by the PSP in Japan.

The company also anticipate the hardware slump to continue even into next year, in spite of the launch of the Wii's successor and the Sony NGP. While Enterbain anticipate 9,925,000 hardware units will be sold this year they have estimated only 8,408,000 will be sold in 2012.

Of course this is all informed speculation and the markets can be quite unpredictable at times. However, it is good to see some positive feelings towards the 3DS sales as most analysts seem to be predicting its demise already.