You'd have to see it to believe it, but since Christmas the PSP has been outperforming the NDS in Japan. And with the recent release of the immensely popular Monster Hunter 2nd G, the Sony domination is likely to continue indefinitely.

In America, however, nothing has really changed. The NDS continues its reign as king of the handhelds. Even when the PSP enjoys a spike in sales, the NDS one ups the Sony handheld.

In worldwide sales to date, the NDS still enjoys a considerable advantage over the PSP. The NDS sales to date are aproaching 70 million units whereas the PSP has sold just over 32 million units. But considering Nintendo had a stranglehold on the handheld market for decades with a 95% market share, Sony has to be happy with the PSP's performance. Now if people would just start buying games for the system....

Turning to the console market, the Nintendo Wii continues its break neck pace of sales. Considering the graph below, you'd have to think that Nintendo could have doubled its sales of the Wii if production kept up with demand. The spikes in the graph seem to indicate when a new shipment of Wii systems hit the store shelves, they sell out almost immediately.

It's hard to believe that the Nintendo Wii has out sold the PS3 two to one since its release. Neither console has a particularly strong lineup of games, but the consumers appear to prefer innovation and affordability over hi-def graphics and high tech gadgetry. Meanwhile, the XBOX 360 keeps chugging along. With its excellent line up of games and superior online capabilities, it seem as though only the red ring of death is preventing Microsoft from prevailing in the generation's console wars.

But as well as the Wii and the Xbox 360 are selling, their sales figures pale in comparison to even the PSP and are down right laughable compared to the NDS. Are we seeing a paradigm shift in the videogame industry away from stationary consoles to portable gaming?

Worldwide sales to date through the end of March 2008. Units sold are in the millions.

Nintendo Wii - 44.2% Market Share
Japan - 5.71
US - 10.26
Other - 7.6
Total - 23.57

Xbox 360 - 34% Market Share
Japan - 0.60
US - 11.44
Other - 6.09
Total - 18.12

PS3 - 21.7% Market Share
Japan - 2.04
US - 4.53
Other - 5.02
Total - 11.58

NDS - 68.1% Market Share
Japan - 22.46
US - 21.90
Other - 25.27
Total - 69.63

PSP - 21.7% Market Share
Japan - 8.82
US - 12.28
Other - 11.54
Total - 32.65