The tail has it

Super Mario 3D Land is the first 3DS game to sell over 5 million copies worldwide.

According to Nintendo's latest figures, the game sits at 5.03m units sold around the world, just ahead of Mario Kart 7's 4.54m sales. Both have easily trumped the previous best-seller, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, which sits at 2.49m global sales.

Considering 3DS sales hit 15 million recently, that's potentially one-third of all 3DS owners picking up Mario's platforming adventure, a staggering figure. No wonder Nintendo has a 2D Super Mario game for 3DS due out before April 2013.

Nintendo has high hopes that these titles will continue to sell throughout the 3DS's life, no doubt crossing its fingers for a New Super Mario Bros.-like situation: over 28m copies of Mario's DS outing have sold around the world.