The first category compares the percentage change from 2005 to 2006 for each system's share of software sales. The formerly indestructable juggernaut that was the PS2 was dethroaned as the market leader for the first time since the launch year, when the PSone was the market leader. The biggest gain, however, was achieved by the Xbox 360 with its 600% increase in market share.

2005 Software Market Share

PS2 – 52.5%
NDS – 21.2%
GBA – 12.6%
PSP – 7.5%
GC – 5.6%
360 – 0.2%

2006 Software Market Share

PS2 – 31.6%
NDS – 50.3%
GBA – 4.0%
PSP – 8.6%
GC – 1.0%
360 – 1.2%
Wii – 2.5%
PS3 – 0.6%
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The next category is hardware sales for 2006. And the verdict is in. Japanese gamers LOVE the Nintendo DS Lite, which out sold all other systems combined.

2006 Hardware Sales Totals

PS2 – 1,547,866
PS3 – 466,716
Wii – 989,118
360 – 208,697
PSP – 1,946,911
NDS – 1,336,931
DSLite – 7,526,038
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Here are the Big Three Titles for each system In 2006. The second best selling NDS game, New Super Mario Brothers, sold about as many copies as the top three games for the PS2, which includes Final Fantasy XII. SquareEnix's decision to make Dragon Quest IX exclusive to the NDS is starting to make more sense.

Playstation 2

Final Fantasy XII (2,322,329)
Winning Eleven 10 (1,052,360)
Monster Hunter 2 (576,510)

Playstation 3

Ridge Racer 7 (98,616)
Mobile Suit Gundam TIS (96,714)
Resistance (72,694)

Wii

Wii Sports (553,214)
Hajimete no Wii (503,185)
Legend of Zelda TP (285,274)

Xbox 360

Blue Dragon (119,396)
Dead or Alive 4 (103,307)
DOA Extreme 2 (57,060)

PSP

Monster Hunter Portable (435,181)
SD Gundam G Generation (271,425)
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (194,423)

NDS

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (4,302,815)
New Super Mario Bros. (3,818,214)
Brain Age 2 (3,748,638)

GBA

Mother 3 (368,582)
Final Fantasy V (243,443)
Rhythm Tengoku (242,002)
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And we round out this report with more statistics evidencing Nintendo's complete domination in '06. Note that Nintendo sold more software than the next four publishers combined. By the way, one of those four is the Pokemon Company, which of course happens to be owned by Nintendo.

Publishers With The Most Games Ranked In the Top 100 In Sales

Nintendo – 30 titles
Bandai Namco – 15 titles
Square Enix – 13 titles
Konami – 8 titles
Capcom – 7 titles
Sega – 7 titles

Software Sales By Publisher In 2006

Nintendo – 24,216,590
Square Enix – 6,847,891
Pokemon – 5,584,691
Bandai Namco – 4,228,980
Konami – 2,495,964