Software for Sony Corp’s Playstation 2 (PS2) game console won the top slot on the March bestseller list in Japan as players snapped up Square Enix Co.’s much-anticipated “Final Fantasy XII.”

Enterbrain, which publishes weekly and monthly retail sales data for games and game devices, said overall software unit sales in March almost doubled from a year earlier thanks to the blockbuster game, which sold over two million copies within two weeks of its debut on March 16.

Harware sales grew 48.5 percent year-on-year on strong demand for Nintendo Co.’s “Nintendo DS Lite” machine, a version of its portable dual-screen game machine Nintendo DS.

Enterbrain, the publisher of game magazine Famitsu, said Japan’s game industry was broadening its user base through Nintendo DS, which is attracting new and returning gamers, and Final Fantasy XII, which is a big hit among heavy players.

Six of the top 10 best-selling games in Japan were DS games, including “Animal Crossing,” which has sold a total of over 2 million copies. Series of “DS Training to Strengthen Your Brain,” a popular brain-training game developed under the guidance of a brain-imaging professor, also made the list.

Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing-Wild World