Games Industry is reporting that Nintendo is leading the Japanese gaming market, primarily with its DS Lite – which unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know about it. However, their article now has the numbers to back it up. Check it out:

The Japanese software market rose 125 per cent in 2006, to 363.89 billion yen (EUR 2.33bn), with Nintendo the most successful company in the market.

Hardware sales for the market as a whole also climbed to 261.9 billion yen (EUR 1.68bn), a 160 per cent increase for the last twelve months, according to data from Enterbrain.

The Nintendo DS was the best-selling hardware in the region, clocking up 7.5 million units sold, leaps ahead of its closest rival, the PSP, which sold 1.9 million units. The PS2 managed 1.5 million units sold.

Nintendo also sold 24.2 million units of software in 2006, which rises to 29.8 million when including sales from affiliate, The Pokemon Company.

Games Industry Link