Media Create has tallied the latest hardware sales numbers in Japan and decreed that Sony's PlayStation Portable has once again kept its commanding lead against its competitors for yet another week. On the flip side of things, five new video game titles have wedged themselves into the top slots of the software market.

Due to the general rise in software sales this week in Japan, hardware sales saw proportional increases as well. The PSP led the pack with 58,861 unit sales, with Nintendo's Wii and DS picking up the pace at second and third place, respectively.

With the slow decline of sales for Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots over the past few weeks, PlayStation 3 sales dropped by over 2,000 units to 17,973. Microsoft's Xbox once again takes the read guard as it saw sales of 5,104 units this week. However, this is still nearly double the amount of sales compared to the previous weeks. In retrospect, the Xbox 360 owes much of its success to the two titles in the top thirty list, Mobile Ops: The One Year War and Battlefield: Bad Company.

Like we mentioned earlier, gamers in Japan have received a massive influx of new software titles. The DS version of the long-running horse racing simulator series Derby Stallion entered as the weekly chart topper. Another notable debut title was the Wii spin-off to the Tales of Symphonia series originally released on the PS2 and GameCube, Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi. In addition, the popular rhythm game series Daigasso! Band Brothers DX also made it to the number three slot with 120,000 sales.

Anyway, here are the hard numbers for both software and hardware sales in Japan for the week of June 23 to June 29:

Software sales

1. Derby Stallion DS (DS) - 148,000
2. Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi (Wii) - 137,000
3. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (DS) - 120,000
4. Hisshou Pachinko*Pachi-Slot Kouryaku Series DS Vol. 12: CR Shinseiki Evangelion - Shito, Futatabi (PS2) - 55,000
5. Higurashi no Nakukoru ni Kizuna: Dai-Ichi-Kan - Tatari (DS) - 42,000
6. Wii Fit    (Wii) - 34,000
7. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) - 34,000
8. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 31,000
9. Super Mario Stadium: Family Baseball (Wii) - 31,000
10. Mobile Suit Gundam - Operation: Troy (Xbox 360) - 28,000

Hardware sales

1. PSP  - 58,861
2. Wii - 48,480
3. DS Lite - 48,884
4. PS3 - 17,973
5. PS2 - 7,673
6. Xbox 360 - 5,104