Japanese Vita sales flat as 3DS soar

Sony’s new handheld has maintained a steady level of sales in its fourth week on the market, but Nintendo has widened the gap.

Vita sold 42,915 units in the week ending January 8th, a slight improvements on the 42,468 units from the previous week. Sony claims 500,000 units have been sold to date, according to Gamasutra.

However, 3DS weekly sales have leapt from 197,952 to 240,819. The Nintendo handheld has shifted 4.5m units in Japan since its launch last February.

Unsurprisingly the software charts were also dominated by 3DS. Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, Monster Hunter 3G and Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine/Dark took to the top four positions.

No Vita titles made it into the Top 20, although Media Create only tracks physical retail sales so the number of titles purchased through the handheld itself is unknown.