Over 10 million PlayStation Portables have been sold in Japan since the handheld launched in the country in December 2004, according to an Enterbrain report described on Japanese game site Famitsu. Enterbrain, a Japanese game industry research firm, has confirmed a past announcement by Sony Corp that its year-to-date PSP sales in Japan reached 10 million units, as of July 15, 2008.

For a successful console, software sales continue to be unusually low for the PSP. In my personal opinion the number of appealing titles seems lacking for a console that has been out this long. One exception in Japan is Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable series which has proven extremely popular. 

According to Famitsu, Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable series (known as Monster Hunter Freedom in the United States) accounts for three of the top-selling software titles in Japan, with the games selling a combined total of over 4.65 million copies.

The top-selling PSP titles in Japan are as follows.

1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom) - March 27, 2008 - 2,396,642 copies sold
2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (Capcom) - February 22, 2007 - 1,706,387 copies sold
3. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix) - September 13, 2007 - 790,705 copies sold
4. Monster Hunter Portable (Capcom) - December 1, 2005 - 668,964 copies sold
5. Phantasy Star Portable (Sega) - July 31, 2008 - 545,242 copies sold

Although the PSP has been selling well in 2008, the system lags behind Nintendo DS sales, which has sold 23 million units since it launched in December 2004, the same month as the PSP. 

The PSP has seen two major hardware redesigns, including the PSP Slim and Lite, which is characterized by a lighter and slimmer design, and the recently announced PSP-3000, which features an improved LCD screen, a built-in microphone, and expanded video-out.