Virtua Fighter 5 first PS3 No.1 in Japan

The PlayStation 3 has secured its first Japanese No.1 with the release of SEGA's Virtua Fighter 5.

With the success of the Wii and DS, the Japanese video game charts haven't read all that kindly for Sony execs. Things look a little rosier this week though, with the long awaited PlayStation 3 release of Virtua Fighter 5 entering at No.1.

The fifth game in the Virtua Fighter series, which is also heading to the Xbox 360 later this year, sold more than 48,000 units, beating off Wii Sports (46,000 units) to the top spot. Wii Play, More Brain Age and New Super Mario Bros. fill the remaining places in the top five.

It's the Wii that continues to outsell the PS3 in hardware sales though with 78,550 units shifted over the week and total sales in Japan now about 1.5 million. The PS3 sold 32,175 units and the Xbox 360 only managed 4,811 units - total sales of the two consoles in Japan now stand at 636,292 and 317,319 units respectively.

All this seems pretty insignificant once the Nintendo DS is brought into the equation; the DS Lite shifted a staggering 201,177 units last week, with combined DS and DS Lite sales in Japan now at over 15 million units.