Worldwide Nintendo DS Sales Closer to 13 Million

2005 - Officially A Vintage Handheld Year

Posted by Staff
SPOnG yesterday reported that over 10 million Nintendo DS’s - otherwise known as the Kiddy-Crack Wonder Toy - have so far been sold worldwide since the console’s launch late in 2004.

Well, we’ve just been contacted by Nintendo to correct us on this. It seems that quite a few more than 10 million have been sold so far. European sales of over 3.5 million DS units combined with the 4 million DS units sold in the US and more than 5 million sold in Japan actually brings the worldwide total closer to 13 million.

European sales of the DS have been considerably bolstered by the launch of SPOnG’s current favourites, Nintendogs and Mario Kart. Nintendogs has sold 1.6 million copies in Europe since launch in October and Mario Kart DS, which stormed the Christmas charts with its global Wi-Fi capabilities, has sold in excess of 800,000 copies in Europe since its late November launch.

Compare these astounding figures with the worldwide sales of the PSP, which is in the region of 7 million units, and you can see that the DS has nearly sold at a rate of 2 to 1 against Sony’s machine, which is graphically superior but is still to wow both hardcore and casual gamers with some must-have games.

The GBA continues to also do well for Nintendo, with Pokémon continuing to go from strength to strength. Sales of the latest game Pokémon Emerald have reached an impressive 1.2 million since it launched in October 2005.

Nintendo’s line-up of games for 2006 is already getting SPOnG slightly hot under the collar. This year we are mostly looking forward to the launch of Prof. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? and Animal Crossing: Wild World, both of which have been a huge success in Japan and should be with us in Europe and the US around Easter.




Comments

majin dboy 5 Jan 2006 18:48
1/10
God,13million,thats impressive.i always thought the DS and PSP would always be about equal sales figures but a 2:1 ratio(nearly) is incredible.

but lets not forget,the PSP was first to ship 10million.
LUPOS 5 Jan 2006 19:30
2/10
majin dboy wrote:
but lets not forget,the PSP was first to ship 10million.


do you mean ps2 and 100 million? cause the psp has only sold around 7 million... which means if ten mill where shipped a whiel ago... there is alot of stock just sitting on shelves gathering over priced dust.
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OptimusP 5 Jan 2006 19:48
3/10
Nope, he really means that one press release where Sony proudly taunted they shipped 10 million PSP's...while sales showed they only sold 6 million.

Another way to read this is "we made at least 80 million dollars profit just by selling DS-hardware" There other gamehardware making companies that can learn from this...
YenRug 5 Jan 2006 19:49
4/10
majin dboy wrote:
but lets not forget,the PSP was first to ship 10million.


No, Sony were the first to announce they'd shipped 10 million, there's a big difference. If Nintendo have sold 13 million, almost twice as many as Sony PSP's, how many do you think they've shipped. Just remember, Nintendo nearly always talk about units sold, Sony nearly always talk about units shipped; who do you think is playing the hype game?
Joji 5 Jan 2006 21:09
5/10
Congrats Nintendo, you clearly deserve it. So long as the good games keep flowing I'll keep buying.
Radiant 6 Jan 2006 12:01
6/10
"European sales of over 3.5 million DS units combined with the 4 million DS units sold in the US and more than 5 million sold in Japan"

What are the respective sales for the psp in each territory?
Greg2k 6 Jan 2006 14:38
7/10
Great news to see the DS is doing exceptionally well in Europe. Spain is still a hostile territory for Nintendo, but they seem to be doing pretty well with the DS (although I'm sure the PSP will eventually beat it over here).
LUPOS 6 Jan 2006 14:46
8/10
Greg2k wrote:
Spain is still a hostile territory for Nintendo


oh no!! every one knows you cant win a console war without SPAIN! nintendo neeeeds those 40,341,462 to want nintendo... the 295,734,134
of the usa and 127,417,244 of japan just arent enough!!
________
kid_77 6 Jan 2006 15:10
9/10
LUPOS wrote:
oh no!! every one knows you cant win a console war without SPAIN! nintendo neeeeds those 40,341,462 to want nintendo

Don't distort the facts, LUPOS!

Half of them wish they had running water, a sewer system and electricity... let alone a NDS ;)

OptimusP 6 Jan 2006 16:12
10/10
Tracking down PSP sales in the respective areas is...well near impossible, except for Japan (its a 2 to 1 ratio over there). One source is Sony's press releases but Sony always (i mean it ALWAYS) uses its shipped number as its sold number. When Sony shipped 10 millions PSP's it actually sold 6 million.
For US numbers you go the NPD , which are jerkasses because they don't count in bundles in hardware and software sales and allow the hardware makers to decide they can publish the sales (which Sony has denied multiple times in regards of the PSP) and they're very inaccurate because they don't count sales of big chains like Wal-mart and online shops. Estimated the ratio is somewhere between 1.2 to 1 and 1.6 to 1.

Europe's PSP sales are somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8 million. Europe is also a very blurry when it comes to salesnumbers.
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