Its all DS dominance leading into Christmas in the week ending December 17th.

Courtesy of Media-Create, we have the most recent sales figures from Japan.

Software sales on the week were notably in favour of the DS once again as holiday spending starts to kick into full gear in Japan (expect numbers to peak around New Years as opposed to Christmas week). The Pokemon were relentless, and all indications point to Diamond/Pearl blitzing the 4 million mark before Christmas. New Super Mario Bros. is primed to follow shortly after - it would be no surprise if the Bros. reached the milestone through the New Year holiday.

In terms of new software, Sega's action RPG Fuurai no Shiren had a solid debut for a more niche series, underlining the DS' increasing ability to generate respectable sales on the strength of its install base - likely a crucial factor in landing the system Dragon Quest IX. Fuurai no Shiren is not completely unknown to westerners...the recent release of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon offers a similar gameplay structure.

Hardware sales were relatively unchanged save for the PSP jumping several slots on the chart. For all its percieved shortcomings, Sony's portable stab has actually yielded (and continues to yield) decent sales month after month...but the achievement has simply been utterly overshadowed by the burgeoning cultural phenomenon that is the DS. What to watch for in the coming weeks: just how sky high DS Lite sales will reach, and how many Wiis Nintendo can provide for their home market over the holidays.

The weekly software numbers follow:

The week's console numbers follow: