Last year, the Wii made headlines for its trouncing of the PlayStation 3, when Nintendo's console was outselling its current-gen competition from Sony in Japan. But 2009 has started to work out a little differently.
For the past two months, Sony's PlayStation 3 has outsold the Wii. It hasn't outsold it by the impressive margins that Nintendo was doing in Japan, when it was selling six Wiis for every PS3 sold, but Sony's higher priced platform is currently holding its own. Since the Wii got so much press for its massive sales in 2008, we'd expect that Sony is enjoying its time in the sun.
In February, the PS3 managed to sell approximately 87,000 units, according to Media Create. That's enough to put it past the Wii, which sold about 76,000 units. In March, however, Sony's lead grew, with PS3 sales reaching 116,000, Wii sales declining to less than 70,000.
That change can likely be chalked up to the PlayStation 3's recent lineup in Japan, which include Yakuza 3, Resident Evil 5 and Musou Orochi Z. The Wii, on the other hand, is suffering through a bit of a software slump, surviving on GameCube to Wii remakes and evergreen titles like Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii.
Obviously, those numbers are very different from sales in the U.S., which is a much bigger market. In February, the Wii moved about three times as many PS3s, according to the NPD Group.