PlayStation Vita sales plummet, less than 20,000 units sold last week

If Sony was worried about the PlayStation Vita sales in Japan before, the latest sales reports must have them in a state of panic.  After a slow launch, things looked like they were beginning to level out for the PS Vita.  Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case as the Vita's sales in Japan plummeted, with only 18,361 units sold.

The latest Media Create sales numbers for the week of January 9 through 15 show a drop of 57% over last week's figures and the system's lowest sales numbers yet.  After opening with 324,859 units sold, the Vita has been in a steady decline since.  Last week, 42,648 systems were sold.

Luckily for the Vita, all systems saw a major drop in sales this week, so the handheld remained in fourth place overall – behind the 3DS, PS3, and its own predecessor, the PSP.  Maybe Vito's "Screw the Vita, buy a PSP" article had some effect after all.

Below is the full hardware chart for the week spanning January 9 through 15, with last week's sales numbers in parentheses.

1. 3DS: 100,668 (240,819)
2. PS3: 30,332 (74,459)
3. PSP: 22,538 (71,033)
4. PS Vita: 18,361 (42,915)
5. Wii: 14,179 (49,525)
6. DSi LL: 1,515 (3,971)
7. Xbox 360: 1,519 (2,738)
8. DSi: 1,206 (3,565)
9. PS2: 766 (1,323)

The PlayStation Vita is still a month away from its North American and European launch on February 22, 2012, where hopefully sales will pickup.  Sony has already admitted that a lot rests on the success of the PlayStation Vita.  We've weighed in on whether or not we think the Vita is worth it, but will you be buying it?

[NeoGAF]