Japanese magazine publisher and market researcher Enterbrain has revealed new chart data for January 2007, which shows that Wii hardware sales outsold the PlayStation 3 by almost three to one.
The sales ratio between the two rival consoles was put at two to one in December, appearing to show a widening sales gap in Japan. Enterbrain’s data, which differs slightly from rival research firm Media Create, shows that around 405,000 Wii consoles were sold in January in Japan, compared to around 148,000 PlayStation 3 consoles.
Enterbrain suggests that a wider range of software available for the Wii and the PlayStation 3’s high price point are the main reason for the disparity in sales. The firm calculates that the Wii has now sold 1.4 million units to date in Japan and the PlayStation 3 614,000 units. Sony’s pre-launch plans had called for 1 million unit sales before the end of 2006.
"There could be a price cut for the PS3 by the end of the year, and more software titles will hit the market. I expect the PS3 to be doing better after a while," said Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura in a Reuters article on the data. "Of course, the Wii will keep running ahead all the while."
(Indeed, recent weekly charts from Media Create have seen even larger margins, with the most recent seeing 83,754 Wii consoles sold versus 19,996 PlayStation 3 units and just 7,365 Xbox 360 units.)
