Findings from the NPD market research group showed PS2 sales at 174,000 units in the US while PS3 is still down at just 82,000. Both are still a long way behind Nintendo's Wii console which hit 360,000 sales.

It also shows that the Nintendo DS portable gaming player was the biggest selling of any consoles with close to half a million units sold - 471,000.

"That research would be very similar to what is happening in Ireland, " according to James Byrne, marketing director of one of Ireland's main toy and game retailer, Byrne's World of Wonder.

"We are selling 7% more PS3 than PS2 consoles [since March] at the moment but this is distorted by the launch period and since then everyday sales are generally higher with PS2. For this period versus the same period last year PS2 sales are up by over 21%, " he said.

"The retail price of PS2 has dropped substantially and different customers are buying it now. It was a very similar pattern to what happened with the Playstation One which by the end of its life almost became a toddler's toy, being passed down through the family, " he said.

However similar to the US, Nintendo are the ones dominating the Irish market at the moment, with Wii sales currently double that of PS3, despite its inferior graphics.

"Wii is a very family-inclusive playable console. Grannys can play it with fiveyear-olds and is doing well with the communion/ confirmation season at the moment. The PS3 at this point is more of a gamers' console but we would expect it to do well this Christmas with no other major console launch, " said Byrne.

Byrnes are also selling seven-times more Nintendo DS Lites then Playstation's PSP portable consoles.