Hard as it may be for some to believe, the much beleaguered Nintendo 3DS has already eclipsed the first year sales of its predecessor, the DS. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime revealed the sales success story to Time in an interview that was posted yesterday. Despite having such an atrocious debut that its price had to be drastically lowered shortly after launch, Reggie says that the handheld has now sold more than 2.37 million units.
“In sales through this past Saturday—8 months—it has outsold the full 12 months of the original DS,” Fils-Aime stated. “During that 12 months time, the original DS sold 2.37 million and we just surpassed that this past Saturday, so we’ve got real good momentum going into the holidays.”
It took the 3DS just under nine months to reach the same sales pillar that the DS, which has gone on to move just shy of 150 million units in the time since it came to the market, hit after a full year on the market. Much of the credit is owed to Super Mario 3D Land, which has been snatched up by more than half-a-million gamers since releasing on November 13 as of a few days ago. Nintendo’s portable also benefited from the two bundle packs that became available just in time for the holiday sales rush.
Despite the recent encouraging performance, assuming that the 3DS has turned a corner is likely premature. Remember that the original DS was an ugly beast of a handheld with a lack of compelling software until the DS Lite arrived in 2006. Nevertheless, things are certainly looking up for the platform.
Things are also going well for Nintendo on the Zelda front. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword became the most brisk-selling release in franchise history when it sold 535,000 units in the US in its first week.
