Today Sony announced they were able to sell 10 million PSPs (PSP-1000 and 2000 series combined) in Japan since the system launched in this country in December 2004. According to Sony, the PSP was the best-selling video game console in Japan for the first half of this year.

These results are pretty impressive but Sony’s number is dwarfed by the 23 million DS consoles Nintendo sold in Japan thus far. In the USA, the current PSP install base is at over 13 million (DS: 23.7 million).

In similar news, Japan’s Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) announced [JP] yesterday shipments of Japanese video game hard- and software to both domestic and international markets grew 79.9% to $27.7 billion on a year-to-year basis. The organization said these numbers mark a record in the history of the Japanese gaming industry.

According to the CESA, sales from game consoles accounted for $19.7 billion, rising 117.9%. Game software shipments increased 25.9% to $8 billion.