3DS to beat out original DS' first year sales, land killing blow during holiday season
First 3DS sales were great, then not so much, and now things seem to be evening out somewhere around "normal." According to numbers released by Nintendo, the fledgling handheld is poised to break the original DS' first year sales numbers -- closing out its 8th month with 1.65 million units sold, or roughly 69 percent of its predecessor's 2.37 million first year sales. Noting that half of the old DS' year one sales were made during the holiday season, Nintendo is confident the 3DS will surpass its predecessor's numbers before hitting the one year mark. We'll let you make your own predictions -- Nintendo's press release is after the break, if you want to compare notes.
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NINTENDO 3DS POISED TO SURPASS FIRST-YEAR SALES OF NINTENDO DS
In its eighth month on the market, the Nintendo 3DS™ system crossed 1.65 million units sold in the U.S., according to the NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. This milestone puts the platform on track to surpass the first-year total of Nintendo DS™, the best-selling game platform in U.S. history.
The Nintendo DS system sold 2.37 million units in its first 12 months (November 2004-October 2005), with approximately 50 percent of those sales occurring in the holiday time frame. With its first holiday season and the launches of the Super Mario 3D Land™ and Mario Kart™ 7 games on the horizon, Nintendo 3DS is poised to eclipse that number and establish a new benchmark for hand-held gaming launches in the United States.
"With a massive lineup of software on the way and the first-year sales record of Nintendo DS in its sights, Nintendo 3DS enters its first holiday season with a full head of steam," said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing.
Other Nintendo news from the month includes:
• Nintendo sold more than 675,000 combined hardware units in October. This includes more than 250,000 units of Nintendo 3DS, nearly 250,000 Wii™ systems and nearly 180,000 units of the Nintendo DS family of systems.
• For the year, Nintendo has sold a combined 7 million hardware units and more than 55 million units of software have been sold for Nintendo platforms. Both of these numbers should increase with the Nov. 20 launch of The Legend of Zelda™: Skyward Sword for Wii.
• Both Wii, up 8 percent year over year, and Nintendo DS, up 23 percent over the previous month, demonstrated strong momentum heading into their respective sixth and eighth holiday seasons. In total, the two platforms have sold more than 87 million combined hardware units and more than 540 million combined units of software in the United States.
