Nintendo DS Passes One Million Mark In Australia

Sales of the Nintendo DS have exceeded more than one million units in Australia, after 153 weeks on sale. Wii sales in the country have also been strong, reaching a record 300,000 units in just 58 weeks – already equaling a previously announced total for the Xbox 360. As reported by Australian website Vooks, the figures from Nintendo Australia officials use independent GfK Australia data, with the Wii becoming the fastest console to reach the 300,000 unit milestone in Australian market history. Like the UK, Australia has traditionally not been a strong market for Nintendo, but in both cases this has changed dramatically with the DS and Wii. The Nintendo DS was the best selling console of the year and sold a total of 509,869 units in 2007, with 133,691 sold in December alone. The Wii sold 73,318 units in December, despite similar stock problems to the rest of the world. A recent GfK report showed that US$1.15 billion in revenues were generated by the Australian video games market as a whole in 2007 – a rise of 43 percent over the previous year. The Xbox 360’s lifetime-to-date total was put at 306,000 units, with the PlayStation 2 proving to be the best selling home console during the year.