Sony's PSP smashes UK records with 185k sales at launch

The PlayStation Portable has officially enjoyed the biggest launch weekend of any console in the UK, with around 185,000 units of the system being sold in its first three days at retail.

The figure - which comes from UK market analysts Chart-Track - is more than double the sales of the previous record holder, the Nintendo DS, which sold around 87,000 units in its first weekend back in March.

The performance of the console reflects the pent-up demand in the UK market for the PSP, which has been heavily featured in the mainstream media here since it launched in Japan nine months ago.

It also defies retail fears that Sony might be unable to meet demand for the system - with initial concerns over a small first day shipment proved unfounded as the company continues to refill the channel with more units on what SCE UK boss Ray Maguire told GamesIndustry.biz is "a daily basis."

Software for the system also sold strongly, with 20 of the 24 titles for the system entering the top 40 and nine of the top ten titles last week being PlayStation Portable games, with the only exception being Codemasters' Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 at number two.

However, there was no stand-out hit title in the first week - with Namco's Ridge Racer being the number one seller, but only going out to around a fifth of PSP purchasers, or roughly 37,000 unit sales.

Instead the software sales were spread around several top titles, with Wipeout Pure coming in at number three, Virtua Tennis at number four, Metal Gear Ac!d at number five and Need for Speed Underground: Rivals at number six.

In fact, five of the top ten titles are PSP racing games this week - with Rockstar's Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition and Codemasters' Toca Race Driver 2 joining the three previously mentioned racers at numbers seven and eight respectively.

In terms of non PSP titles in this week's chart, only two new games enter the ranking - with Novalogic's Delta Force: Black Hawk Down on the Xbox and PS2 debuting at number one on the Xbox chart, and entering the all-formats chart at number 15, while Microsoft's Dungeon Siege II tops the PC chart but only reaches number 33 on the all-formats ranking.

Source - Gi Biz

thats really true all gamers run to buy psp :D

and then a month later it sits in their drawer rarely played again...:(

because the games suck

Yes indeed locke... and it's probably broken, cause first generation Sony hardware = teh sukz0rz!!

Nintendo fanboy for life.

my first gen ps2 doesnt even read super clean PSX games...and skips reading DVDs..and rarely plays ps2 games anymore 1/20 chance it will boot :(

Tybo, don't listen to what everyone else says about you - no matter what they claim to think, deep down people really do love fanboys. It's fanboys like you who keep this world = teh RoxX0rs! So if anyone calls you a wang or a ballsack or a big girl's blouse or a blind duck's arse, just let it bounce right off you because you'll always be right.

i have both nds and psp and i play with both consoles i like games from nds like mario64
rayman but i also like games from psp like medievil ressurection and final fantasy so i think both consoles are cool no flaming nor to nintendo or sony

what can i say i am a fanatic gamer:D

my ds is collecting dust atm, barely any games out for it.. think theres been 1 or 2 out since after launch. and only game worth getting would be mario ds and say a n64 emu ever came out for psp then :D i wud sooo stand next to someone playing mario ds and flash away teh mario 64 on the emu :rolleyes: