Nintendo has announced that the 3DS has sold over 5,000,000 units in under one year. To compare, it took the Game Boy Advance fifty-eight weeks to reach this milestone, and it took fifty-six weeks for the Nintendo DS to do the same. There’s a graph after the break to see the sales relative to other Nintendo platforms.
Satoru Iwata shared the above chart in an investor meeting, also mentioning that:
…at the end of last year which reported that the total unit sales of the Nintendo 3DS reached four million faster than the Nintendo DS or the Wii. However, at that time, this pace was not the fastest in Japan’s video game history, since it was slower than that of the Game Boy Advance. But, the Nintendo 3DS did not lose its momentum even after the new year, and two weeks ago it broke the record of the fastest sales pace.
And I’m assuming we can stop saying the 3DS is doomed. It seems to be doing quite well.
Enterbrain in Japan is reporting that the 3DS broke a monthly sales record last month. According to them, the 3DS sold 1,492,931 units this past December. That is apparently the highest amount any console has sold in a single month since Enterbrain began tracking sales in 1997. If accurate, this is a very impressive feat.
Enterbrain in Japan has shared that the 3DS was the top selling platform in Japan in the past year, beating all other consoles with over four million units sold (a figure that was matched in North America). As expected, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land were the two top selling games.
According to Famitsu magazine, Nintendo managed to sell 510,629 3DS units last week. This puts the 3DS at well over four million units sold in Japan alone. Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land also sold very well last week in Japan by becoming the first 3DS games to reach 1 million copies sold in Japan.
Nintendo has announced that the 3DS has broken a sales record in Australia. The 3DS has become the fastest selling video game console to sell 200,000 units in 37 weeks. The 3DS beat out not only all other handheld consoles, but also all home consoles in this category.
Retailers in the United Kingdom are reporting that sales for the 3DS have increased so much recently that the ‘Metallic Red’ 3DS is almost sold out and the other versions of the handheld are heading in the same direction. This rise in sales is apparently due to the release of Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land. Iain Johnson of GAME has even said that, “We have high expectations [of the 3DS] for the final few weeks before Christmas.” It will be interesting to see what the sales numbers of the 3DS are after the holidays have come and gone.