To almost absolutely no one’s surprise, the 3DS, a platform that was absolutely on fire all throughout 2013, ended up topping the overall hardware charts in Japan by a long, long mark.
These numbers come courtesy of Media Create, which reports that the 3DS ended up selling 4.88 million units in the country, takings lifetime to date totals just within Japan alone to 14.66 million. And the real kicker here is that it was still down from 2012, when it sold 5.49 million units.
The second highest selling platform was the PlayStation Vita, selling just a fourth of what the 3DS did at 1.22 million units, bringing its lifetime total to 2.35 million units. The third highest selling system was the Wii U, which was also surprisingly the highest selling console of the year in the region, selling 898,000 units, and bringing its lifetime total to 1.5 million units.
It will be interesting to see if the 3DS manages to maintain its lead on the hardware charts for the fourth year running, with the impending launches of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the region.
The full chart for 2013, courtesy of Media Create, is provided below:
Nintendo 3DS: 4,882,040 (5,497,737)
PS Vita: 1,224,532 (690,839)
Wii U: 898,143 (627,487)
PS3: 849.590 (1,223,699)
PSP: 439,398 (899,627)
Wii: 72,082 (475,615)
Xbox 360: 25,482 (77,789)
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