3 DS Normal and XLcrop

While the 3DS may not have sales tracking alongside those of the DS family of systems, it's achieved a great deal after a poor start and — as most would agree — performed well in an increasingly crowded, volatile market. Nintendo had hoped for better, naturally, having revised its yearly target down just recently, but that's potentially a legacy of DS-level optimism meeting up against a smart device world.

Looking beyond dropped projections, however, the current handheld continues to set modern day landmarks, such as ending 2013 as the top-selling games hardware in territories such as the U.S. and UK. Naturally it'll have seized that crown in Japan, too, but Famitsu is now reporting that, as of 26th January, the system has passed 15 million unit sales in Japan. That incorporates both the standard and XL (LL in Japan) models, while the 2DS has not yet been released in Nintendo's homeland.

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It's another major landmark for the system, and it'll be interesting to see how it performs throughout 2014.

[source famitsu.com, via siliconera.com]