Nintendo of America has reported that first party 3DS software sales have risen by 52 percent in the past year. In the first four months of the 2013, more than 2.1 million first party 3DS games were sold in the U.S. alone. Back in 2012, it took 30 weeks for first party 3DS game sales to reach 2 million units. This year, that figure was hit in almost half the time — 18 weeks, to be precise.
Driven by a sizzling release schedule — containing titles like Fire Emblem: Awakening, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon — the 3DS has enjoyed a bumper year. In fact, it's one of our favourite consoles at the moment.
In April alone, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins posted sales of 94,000 units across both physical and digital formats, while Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon scored 140,000 — bringing its North American total to 530,000 copies sold.
Away from the portable arena, Nintendo has confirmed that New Super Mario Bros. U has now sold 770,000 units — again, both physical and digital — on the Wii U after sixth months on sale.
Are you surprised by the commercial performance of the 3DS, or were you expecting higher figures? Post a comment to tell us.
Comments 10
Not at all surprised, I'm pleased to see those numbers, and just like the Wii U does the 3DS just needed a few big name games to get it's momentum going.
It will just keep going up this year. I know that Nintendo has plenty to show for the rest of the year! And of course that will boost sales even more.
I know it's not first party but PLEASE bring Super Street Fighter IV 3D to the eshop.
This increase in digital sales must encourage third parties, and capcom already retro actively released resident evil revelations and mercenaries.
I would day one download street fighter as I'm sure others would who have only just joined in with 3DS and missed out on this game at launch. I've watched the video on the eshop for it loads and it looks phenomenal, but don't want to buy a second hand card and would rather download it if capcom only release it
They've put a lot of effort in the last 12 months so I'm glad to see it rewarded with better sales, but it had such a horrible start, that improving on it really wasn't a tough job.
More bad news for Wii U. Lego City 3DS was the 10th best seller with 94k copies sold. That means the Wii U version sold less than 94k all month. Possibly a LOT less. That's one of the big exclusives. Do people now understand why Ubisoft had to make Rayman multiplatform? And with regards to hardware... Xbox 360 has it's worst monthly sales ever, at nearly 8 years old but still sells four times as much as Wii U. For anyone saying Wii U sales are normal for a new console, take a good long look at that. It's not all doom and gloom, Nintendo can turn it around with games, but thank god a lot of posters here don't run Nintendo as many are still claiming the figures are fine and Nintendo don't need to put more effort in.
@Peach64 "Do people now understand why Ubisoft had to make Rayman multiplatform?"
I don't think the problem people had was Ubisoft going multiplatform, but them delaying the Wii U version until the ports are done.
I don't understand can UBISOFT just release "Rayman Legends" now and say if it does extremely well, port it onto different platforms?
@hiptanaka @baba_944 I believe MS don't allow ports unless they come out the same day as the original. So Ubi had to decide... exclusive for the Wii U and risk making a big loss, or delay to release it on everything. At the time people said it would have been a huge seller in February, but lets not forget it was competing with NSMBU as a 2D platformer. Lego City had no competition on its genre and still sold bad. It sucks, but you can see why these decisions get made, and it's not because everyone hated Nintendo.
These sales are nothing compared to what we'll see in October when Pokemon X and Y come out. Hardware and software for 3DS is going to start flying off the shelves.
And I'm sure they'll only get higher by the time Pokemon X and Y comes out
Well done Nintendo.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...