Nintendo Reveals Worldwide Hardware Sales

Following details of its first quarter financial results published yesterday, Nintendo officials have given a detailed breakdown of worldwide hardware and software sales across its various formats for the three months ended June 30th, 2006. The figures are stated as sold rather than shipped, and indicate that an impressive 2,340,000 units of both the original Nintendo DS and new DS Lite were sold in Japan in the last three months, compared to 1,420,000 in Europe and the rest of the world and a notably smaller total of 780,000 in North America. Software sales for the format were put at 9,080,000 units for Japan, with 4,890,000 units sold in Europe and 4,380,000 units in North America. The lifetime-to-date figures for both iterations of the Nintendo DS hardware are now put at 9,240,000 in Japan, 6,130,000 in Europe and 5,900,000 in North America. This adds up to a worldwide title of 21,270,000 units after around a year and a half on sale. If accurate, these figures suggest that Nintendo’s aim to sell a total of 17 million units of the Nintendo DS worldwide during the company's current financial year are entirely plausible. As would be expected, Nintendo’s other formats did not enjoy any similar level of success, with just 120,000 units of the Game Boy Advance sold in Japan, 500,000 sold in Europe and 700,000 sold in North America. While North America remains Nintendo’s softest market for the Nintendo DS, the Game Boy Advance still dominates portable sales there, with just 880,000 units of software sold in Japan, 2,360,000 in Europe and a significant 4,990,000 in North America. Lifetime totals for the entire Game Boy Advance family of consoles (including the Game Boy Advance SP and Micro) are put at 16,600,000 in Japan, 20,750,000 in Europe and 38,450,000 in North America, for a global total of 75,810,000 units. By comparison, the GameCube has failed to enjoy significant sales in any territory, although the software market in North America can still be seen to be relatively buoyant. Hardware sales in Japan were 10,000 units, 40,000 in Europe and 100,000 in North America. Japanese software sales were 160,000 units, European software sales were 400,000 and in North America they totaled 2,950,000 units. The lifetime totals for the GameCube format are 4,010,000 in Japan, 4,720,000 in Europe and 12,270,000 in North America, for a total of 21,000,000 worldwide. By comparison, worldwide shipments for the PlayStation 2 are put at around 103,000,000 with the original Xbox on around 22,000,000 units.