The 3DS is approaching its forth month on the Japanese market, and video gaming magazine Enterbrain has reported that the handheld console has reached an important milestone in terms of hardware sales.
It's taken the 3DS 13 weeks to surpass one million domestic sales, slightly slower than the original DS which took four weeks, and the DS Lite and DSi which both took eight weeks. The DSi XL took the longest of all the DS models when it sold a million units 25 weeks after its launch.
After an impressive Japanese debut, the 3DS slowly started to lag behind the Sony PlayStation Portable, but thanks in part to recent third-party releases, hardware sales have now picked up enough for Nintendo to reach the handheld's first milestone. In the week ending 5th June, 27,357 3DS consoles were sold and ranked #2 in the hardware chart behind the PSP which managed to shift 30,155 units.
Software sales for the same week saw numerous titles for Nintendo platforms taking up 50 percent of the top ten: Pandora's Tower sold 8,436 copies and was ranked #8, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional is still going strong and was ranked #4 with 10,729 copies, Battle & Get! Pokémon Typing DS sold equally as well with 11,014 copies which secured a position at #3, but it's Capcom and Namco's 3DS efforts that are leading the software sales with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D selling 58,792 copies and One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP selling 16,753 units, placing #1 and #2 respectively.
With the Flare Red 3DS arriving in conjunction with the Japanese release of Star Fox 64 3D, hardware sales should hopefully remain steady in the coming weeks.
[source andriasang.com, via m-create.com]
Comments 18
the 3ds is picking up steam, just like the regular ds did when it first came out. with better games coming to market and more people picking up and playing the console for the 1st time then it will pick up even more. give it time and i believe some great things can be done on this handheld, cant wait till they start promoting movies on it.
Another hint is more improvement for the 3DS itself, starting by more additions with upcoming updates that hopefuly don't take too long.
@4 In complete aggreability. When Ocarina Of Time launches on Friday for us in Europe and Sunday in the USA and elsewhere, that will bring in many people wanting to get a 3DS as so many love Ocarina Of Time. When a Mario game comes in, that will bring in all the little kids who love Mario. Soon the 3DS will be doing great.
Reminds me of DS when it first came out. Hope 3DS can replicate the "Slow Start" DS had.
@3DSneedsRPGs Mario isn't just for little kids, its for all ages.
Good job on the end with Mercenaries. That'll sell some units.
Sales will skyrocket when OoT3D gets released.
Let's not forget about what recently happened to Japan and how that definitely affected, among several other things, videogame sales.
As the games begin to be released, the systems begin to be moved and it reminds us that it is GAMES that move a system, not power. Nintendo, PLEASE remember this for Wii U.
already outsold the 360 in Japan so it isnt too bad
Figures One Piece is doing well, the manga's selling like 2 million copies per book in about 2 days after release.
Nintendo needs to change the ink cartridge on it's money printing machine or better yet, drop the price.
@MasterGraveheart True but at the same time the system needs to have the power to run the games. Otherwise developers won't bother. This is a lesson Nintendo hopefully learned with the Wii.
@GamersCorner That's only true in the context that developers make the games so they can't run on less powerful hardware. Truth be told, there are very few gameplay concepts represented on HD consoles that couldn't be done on Wii hardware.
3DS is the best console around IMO , by miles, and I don't even own it yet. It just seems perfect in every way. Vita for example gets it wrong. The touchscreen in 3DS only works because it's a dual screen - that also gave us the 3D on the other screen, but the concept is brilliant. After all, if there are buttons, why do we need touch? If you touch, you don't see the screen... and if the Vita has enough buttons, why not use those?
I think Nintendo is brilliant in that they actually want you to use all features. So if they put a gyroscope, they don't need a second circle pad, because then the gyro will be pointless. It might be used in some shake the machine way but that's more suited for a Wii remote or a tablet with a huge screen, and not a whole gaming console where you need to watch the screen. They don't just put things on it, they want you to use them. There's so much brilliance in that portable gaming console that it screams beauty. It needs a nobel prize or something for ingeniousness, and it has to come from the company that made the Gameboy, which I still cherish..
Anyway, I love it.
That's pretty slow no? Hopefully it will pick up once cool titles come out the 3DS.
plan to pick up a new 3DS next month, tell you the truth the 3DS was released so much faster than I thought that it like slipped my mind alil compared to thinking about what the next console is
"Software sells hardware."
How true. I bet sales will continue to grow, especially after the release of Ocarina of Time 3D. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I'm buying a 3DS just for this game!"
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