Japanese hardware sales, 18 Dec - 24 Dec: shameless recap edition

Like a stage hook dramatically coercing us out of the spotlight or a kind psychiatrist pulling us back from the brink of madness, the end of the year is putting the kibosh on Japanese sales charts for 2006. With all the ups, downs and insufferable numbers you've been exposed to, it's quite likely that your nightmares have become filled with imposing calculator-men riding rollercoasters and vomiting out percentages as soon as the ride stops.

We're very sorry for that. Have some numbers.

- DS Lite: 485,584 (yes, really)

165,876 (51.88%)
- Wii: 279,277

171,040 (158.02%)
- PSP: 138,588

89,626 (183.05%)
- PS3: 76,882

5,940 (8.37%)
- PS2: 46,209

8,479 (22.47%)
- Xbox 360: 17,213

45 (0.26%)
- Game Boy Micro: 2,394

903 (60.56%)
- GBA SP: 1,858

9 (0.48%)
- Gamecube: 1,250

98 (8.51%)
- DS Phat: 380

222 (140.51%)
- GBA: 57

15 (35.71%)
- Xbox: 11

8 (266.67%)

[Source: Media Create]

In addition, we've compiled a list of our least terrible sales charts from the last year (though they only started appearing on Joystiq in July) in a last-ditch effort to inflict their unimaginable pain upon you once more. Thank you for reading!

• Heavy Meta Edition (31 July - 6 Aug) -- wherein we teach readers to create their own pedantic and self-referential sales chart posts.

• Fake Comments Edition (7 Aug - 13 Aug) -- wherein we save readers the trouble of commenting and just get it over with ourselves. First post!

• Dear Diary Edition (21 Aug - 27 Aug) -- wherein we infamously delve into the mind of a young Japanese girl. The results are surprising and leads to one developer making us promise not to write our interview with him in the same style.

• Tokyo Stalker Edition (11 Sep - 17 Sep) -- wherein we finally track down the man responsible for buying all those original Xbox systems every week.

• Fully Translated Edition (25 Sep - 1 Oct) -- wherein we discover the amusing properties of machine translations.

• Platinum Premium Edition (23 Oct - 29 Oct) -- wherein we make microtransaction jokes. Typically topical.

• Wiivolution Edition (27 Nov - 3 Dec) -- wherein we celebrate the DS Lite's dethroning from the charts. It makes a vengeful return the very next week.

• Dearly Departed Edition (4 Dec - 10 Dec) -- wherein we examine the serious nature of Wii fatalities ... and reference Grim Fandango.

All sales charts ever can be found here.