Japanese market declines 9% in 2010

Andriasang has got hold of Enterbrain’s annual Japanese video games market report, and it reveals another year of decline in the region.

In total the market shrunk by nine per cent year-on-year in the last 12 months arching a total value of Y494bn (3.8bn). Hardware suffered the steepest decline, falling 18.9 per cent to Y176bn (1.36bn), while software fell by 2.5 per cent to Y318bn (2.46bn).

By contrast, the UK market was worth 2.875bn last year.

Despite PSP’s strong year it was unable to beat DS to the annual handheld crown, with its 2.89m sales falling just short of DS’ 2.96m unit sales.

And Wii put in a champion showing despite its troubles, too, shifting 1.73m units. PS3 sold 1.56m machines and Xbox 360 209k.

Lifetime DS sales in the region now stand at 32.1m followed by PSP (16.3m), Wii (11.2m), PS3 (5.95m) and Xbox 360 (1.4m).

In the software charts, Nintendo’s Pokemon Black & White was the best selling title with 4.9m units shifted. Other successes included Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (3.5m), New Super Mario Bros (1.6m), Wii Party (1.5m) and Dragon Quest VI (1.3m).