Monster Hunter franchise gave Sony's portable a major boost
Even in the shadow of Nintendo's dual-screened handheld global dominance, Sony's PlayStation Portable remains a viable competitor. Japanese publisher Famitsu estimates the handheld has reached a new milestone with sales of 10 million units in Japan alone. The PSP's sales performance has previously made headlines more than a few times this year thanks to being a top-selling platform in Japan for several weeks. Indeed, Famitsu also believes the PSP was the best-selling platform in Japan overall during the first half of 2008.
An attractive software lineup was of course the key to the PSP's continued success. Through their own sales tracking, Famitsu ranks the top five PSP titles in Japan:
Famitsu Japanese PSP Bestsellers (Original game release - 2008/08/24)
| | Title | Platform | Original Release | Unit Sales |
| 1. | Monster Hunter 2nd G | Capcom | 2008/03/27 | 2,396,642 |
| 2. | Monster Hunter 2nd | Capcom | 2007/02/22 | 1,706,387 |
| 3. | Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII | Square Enix | 2007/09/13 | 790,7050 |
| 4. | Monster Hunter Portable | Capcom | 2005/12/02 | 668,964 |
| 5. | Phantasy Star Portable | Sega | 2008/07/31 | 545,242 |
Capcom wins big as a PSP publisher thanks entirely to the highly lucrative Monster Hunter franchise; not even Square Enix's Final Fantasy series could top MH on the PSP platform. Phantasy Star's popularity also makes a case for the appeal of wireless PSP gaming, which the MH series also supports. It's worth noting that nearly all of the top five PSP games were released within the last two years, and the most recent bestsellers took less time to sell more copies on average.
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