The domestic video game market fell 18.4% in fiscal 2008, Famitsu.com reported today, citing early sales data from publisher and market analysis firm Enterbrain. The bulk of the falloff was in hardware, but software also saw a double-digit drop.

The Enterbrain figures cover March 31 2008 through March 29, 2009. Over this period, the domestic market saw total sales of 552,420 million yen, down 19.4% from 2007. Hardware fell 28.1% to 231,520 million yen. Software fell 10.7% to 320,910 million yen.

DS was the top selling hardware for the year, with its 3,983,205 units (includes DS, DS Lite and DSi) bringing its life-to-date sales to 26,152,966 units. PSP, which topped the weekly sales charts for most of the year, trailed at 3,235,630 units. The Sony portable is closing in on the 12 million mark, with total sales of 11,804,589 units.

Wii topped the console market with 2,257,575 units. The system is on the verge of 8 million units, with total sales at 7,953,154 units.

PS3 and Xbox 360, both of which recently topped major sales milestones, were a distant second and third to the Wii, neither managing to reach the million mark. PS3 sold 999,903 units, with Xbox 360 selling 398,633 units. As reported earlier in the week, total sales for the systems stand at, respectively, 3,009,395 and 1,001,191 units.

Nintendo dominated in software as well, taking four of the top five. Pokemon Platinum (Pokemon, DS) was the best selling game for the year with 2,372,336 units, just beating out Mario Kart Wii's (Nintendo, Wii) 2,203,430 units. Rhythm Heaven Gold (Nintendo, DS) sold 1,651,424 units, ahead of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom, PSP) at 1,629,867 units and Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) at 1,506,713 units.

Of the software, Monster Hunter and Wii Fit were released before the start of the year. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G has seen total sales of 2,453,132 units, although this figure does not appear to include the game's budget edition, which brings the total over the three million mark. Wii Fit has sold a total of 3,268,906 units.