3DS Sells 113K In UK, 303K Across All Of Europe In Opening Weekend

Nintendo on Friday said its newly-released 3DS handheld sold 113,000 units in its opening weekend in the UK, topping British launches of 2005's Nintendo DS and 2006's Wii, according to the company's internal sell-thru panels. While Nintendo said it was pleased with the performance of the handheld in the region, it was short of previous UK preorder estimates of 140,000 units. The platform still managed to set a record for the fastest-selling Nintendo console ever in the UK, the company said. The Nintendo DSi, the company's previous DS model, sold 90,000 units at launch and the Wii sold 106,000. The 3DS didn't top the Sony PSP's 2005 launch, which sold 185,000 units, albeit that was across three days instead of two. The platform launched in the UK on March 25 and in the U.S. on March 27. The 3DS first launched in Japan in late February. Across all of Europe, the 3DS sold 303,000 units, making it "the fastest selling Nintendo handheld device over a launch weekend" on the continent, the Mario house said. The home-based Wii had sold 325,000 units in its opening weekend in Europe. Nintendo of America said this week that the 3DS had higher day-one sales than any previous Nintendo handheld, but the U.S. branch declined to reveal any hard sales figures.