Nintendo: DS is now best-selling console ever in US

by JC Fletcher on Jan 4th 2011 10:03AM

Nintendo has tabulated its internal US sales figures for 2010, finding that more than seven million Wiis were sold here for the third year in a row. According to Nintendo, that means the Wii has now sold 34 million units life-to-date in the US.

Yo Wii, I'm really happy for you, and I'm a let you finish, but the DS is the US's best-selling video game console of all time. Of all time. Nintendo reports that the life-to-date US sales for the DS family of systems now stands at over 47 million. The closest competitor is the PlayStation 2, which had sold 50 million in all of North America as of early 2009. The DS became Europe's best-selling console ever last year.

Source: Nintendo

Tags: ds, life-to-date, ltd, nintendo, sales, us, wii

Reader Comments (71)

2009 called and they want their Kanye West reference back.

@FriedConsole

I thought that was pretty funny actually.

@acefondu

I thought it was funny too. Just got make a joke about the dated reference. I think enough time has passed where I am not annoyed by the reference anymore.

@FriedConsole

I agree with acefondu....it made me laugh as well....

@FriedConsole
I feel the Kanye reference is pretty sturdy if not overused. This was a good use. The meme can even be detached from Kanye at this point and still be humorous.

@FriedConsole
Surely the "20xx called and they want their x back" template is even older thus making your crimes against humour far more heinous?

@Haggard

Do you think I should have gone with:

Old Meme is Old?

@FriedConsole

Dear Nintendo,

Welcome to the good life!

Signed, Kanye

@FriedConsole

the Jerk Store called, and they're running out of you.

@FriedConsole

I was going to post the same thing, and also berat him for not using the appropriate "Imma" instead of "I'm a".

I'm confused... with the Playstation at over 50 million units sold, isn't the DS #2?

@erockfitz 50 million in North America, not just the US.

Though why the PS2 hasn't been accounted for in 2 years is beyond me.

@erockfitz My thoughts exactly. Also, I wish they'd track these "milestones" by individual SKU.

@koehler83 Thank you for that clarification, good sir.

@koehler83

Too bad that now it looks like nintendo is not interested in this best selling console anymore. all the big titles are announced for the 3ds, and the ds??? well, guess they don´t really care as now they need to sell another console in big numbers.

@erockfitz No. The DS number is for the US only. North America includes the US, Canada, Mexico, and those Tourist traps in the Caribbean.

So for US sales, the DS is number one. It's probably number one for North America too if those numbers were available.

Well... when everyone seems to own 2 or 3 it's not too surprising.

@Vidikron
Many people bought two PS2s because of disk read failures, or bought two 360s due to failure. Also, many people have traded/sold their DS or PS2. Therefore the actual number of owners can be quite a bit higher or lower than the number sold.

@erh

Still not likely remotely close IMO. By nature portables tend to be personal devices. It's not uncommon to have families where each kid has a portable, but they all share one console. Then, for whatever reason, people seem to be more willing to trade up their portable. I personally have an original DS, a Lite, and a DSi. My wife has a Lite and a DSi. So we have 5 portables between us and the un-used ones are just sitting in a drawer. Given what I've seen among my friends and the comments here I don't think my situation is all that uncommon.

Yes, the PS2 had some drive failure issues, but it's not as if the DS is failure free. The original DS had big problems with cracked hinges, plus if you play a lot of stylus games it's easy to scuff the screen to the point where the system really needs to be replaced. That was the primary reason my wife bought her DSi. She's a huge fan of games like Sudoku and Picross and she simply wore out the DS Lite's touch screen.

@Vidikron I bought 4 of them, one for myself, 3 for family members. Affordability played a big role in that. Would have never done that with the PSP.

All three DS Lites that I bought ended up with cracked hinges, and the third one I was extremely careful with. The DS Phat that I own, never has had an issue and has been much more abused. Nintendo was adamant that there was no hinge problem when I contacted them. If they can't admit the problem, then how am I supposed to feel confident buying another handheld from them? Although, I admit that the 3DS looks too tempting to pass up.

I have 3 DSes. Old, lite, and XL! I have never owned a PS2.....

@erockfitz

And you're proud of this?

@Shockwave I am proud of the DSes, but not of never owning the PS2. Had to beat Shadow of the Colossus on PS3 against Elder Scrolls IV and MGS4. Hard to manage!

@erockfitz

I was a huge PS1 fankid, but somehow I never ended up with (or wanted) a PS2 either. Anyways, I had 2 DS's though.

@Chibi Chaingun

You were a huge PS1 fan but never wanted a PS2?

WTF!?!?!

@JasonA

I know! From the PS1 I went: N64--->Dreamcast--->Gamecube---->Xbox.

Definitely deserves it. My favorite system since the SNES.

Will the 3DS be included in the sales numbers for the DS when it comes out?

@Yuglyoshi i dont think so, as far as my knowledge goes, it is NOT a hardware revision, but a succesor, next gen handheld, so 3DS sales shouldn't count as NDS/NDSLite/NDSi/NDSXL sales

DS earned it. Such a good system. I cannot wait for the 3DS.

Makes sense. I've personally purchased 5 of them over the years.

Will the 3DS be considered as part of this DS Family?

@shinjix2

No, Its a whole new generation.

@Shadow Hog

Yea I missed that. Thanks!

Cheap games.
No region coding, no tacked on bullsh!t or DLC scams.
Portable.
Remakes and sweet sweet throwbacks (only console currently you can play a semi-HD FF IV and an almost Chrono Trigger remake)

What in the hell is not to like? They pull the same stunt with the 3DS make it stronger and keep all the awesome above and....oh wait.

@Shadow Hog

Well, we'll see how well the "cheap games" works. The portable market has changed with the rise of smart phone gaming. There "cheap" means 99 cents. I'm not talking about overall game quality since that clearly goes to the dedicated systems in most cases, but Nintendo has a tougher road this time. A lot of their audience may decide that their smart phones are "good enough" when it comes to portable gaming.

@ShadowXIII

I don't see what's not to like.
The 3DS will be a huge step forward compared to the DS.

It has proper firmware, proper digital distribution, proper online gameplay (reportedly), much more power to work with, a 3D screen and hopefully little or no piracy for a long, long time.

And personally, I don't think it will end up region locked (well, the cartridges anyway. Online store will likely be locked). Nintendo's experiment region locking the DSi was a huge failure, and the industry as a whole seems to be moving away from it.

I don't like how it's counted... I mean, there were four DS console releases, not including the 20,000 special edition paintjobs. People are saying theyve bought 4 or 5 DSs. I'm gonna take a guess and say they weren't all DS phats. It's much less likely someone will buy a regular console multiple times.

@brightbonewhite

The handheld market has always been like this.

And.. as long as they collect the monies i don't think they're worried about it.

This won't last. iOS, anyone?

@Cats

Yeah, but that's an unfair comparison considering games aren't the only reason people buy iPod touches and iPhones.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 I still don't know why people prefer to game on their iOS devices >_> Yeah a Multitouch screen is cool and all, but I'd much rather have a (single) touch screen+ buttons. and an analog stick.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 — it's an entirely fair comparison. they both do games, and they're now both competing for the same markets. The iPod Touch has more selling points, but that's not their problem: it's Nintendo's, and here's hoping they provide some innovative competition besides 3D...

@ Shadow Hog + 182, clearly tactile buttons aren't a problem in Apple's gaming success. Thinking this is a consumer demand because you feel you need buttons is completely inaccurate, else Apple would have poor sales, and wouldn't see all these huge game sales via their App Store.

As for Quicktime, you're a laugh using bloated Firefox and complaining about QT or iTunes. Everybody knows you can download ONLY Quicktime if you choose. I'd love to know why it's "poorly written"...?

@Cats

HAHAHAOHGOD

No.

@Cats

Since I got an iPhone I haven't barely touched my DS. The big reason is that yes the DS is a better platform to play games on and you can take it with you, but a device like the iPhone feels like the true be all portable device. I don't really have to remember to shove another device in another pocket because I always have it since it's my phone (and gaming device, and GPS etc etc all in one). Plus the games are quick and fun, perfect for on-the-go gaming sessions. The DS got more play time at home, in the living room. Same with my PSP when I still had it.

That said, I still want a 3DS. :D But, that has less to do with it being a practical mobile gaming device for ME as it has to do with my gadget obsession. :)

@The Joy of Cooking DeMat Touché. Let us know when you reach puberty and can hold a mature discussion.

@Chibi Chaingun

"Since I got an iPhone I haven't barely touched my DS. The big reason is that yes the DS is a better platform to play games on and you can take it with you, but a device like the iPhone feels like the true be all portable device."

This right here is what I was referring to in my comment above when I said that there may be a lot of people out there for whom smart phone gaming is now "good enough". Yes, I still think there are vastly superior games on dedicated systems like the DS, but portable gaming is focused on convenience and price. Virtually everyone has a phone these days and would own one with or without the improvement in the gaming. So the "price" of the hardware becomes a sunk cost. Then the games, while not as deep, are only $1 in many cases. It's going to be interesting to see how this next generation of portable gaming plays out. Apple may do to Nintendo in portable gaming what Nintendo did to MS and Sony in the home console market.

@Shadow Hog

It's fairly easy to change content play settings in your browser and/or on your PC. I have Quicktime installed and it never auto plays anything. Ever.

@Vidikron:

Good post, I agree. However, I generally don't call iOS gaming just standard smartphone gaming. I have seen and heard of many people buying iPod Touches as a gaming device and I think that would be a fair label considering the support from developers and Apple on the App Store. Different experience than the DS for sure, but not quite just standard mobile phone gaming in my eyes, though it definitely fills that gap as well.

@Chibi Chaingun

That's true. It's definitely more broad than just smart phones, but it's also more broad than iOS. Android devices are selling great and will also be competition to the next wave of dedicated portable devices. The Android marketplace is still behind the App store by a pretty big margin, but with their popularity this gap should close. I expect most developers will port their start to port their apps to both platforms.

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Nintendo: DS is now best-selling console ever in US

Reader Comments (71)

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:06AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:15AM acefondu said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:21AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:25AM Bumper said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:33AM Lerkero said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:38AM Haggard said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:49AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:05AM jph89 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:54AM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:37PM Breakdown said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:09AM erockfitz said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:12AM koehler83 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:15AM Xeno378 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:25AM Xeno378 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:22AM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 4:00PM EDay said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:13AM Vidikron said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:54AM erh said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:07PM Vidikron said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:42PM Flapjackal said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 4:30PM Hords said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:18AM erockfitz said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:36AM Shockwave said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:02AM erockfitz said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:58AM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:54PM JasonA said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 1:09PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:19AM zerokku said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:25AM Yuglyoshi said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:55AM DarkSonata said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:25AM sammo21 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:26AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:34AM shinjix2 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:12AM jph89 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:16AM shinjix2 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 10:35AM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:53AM Vidikron said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 5:54PM Esposch said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:12AM brightbonewhite said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:37AM Nekki said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:19AM Cats said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:45AM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:53AM 182 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 11:59AM Cats said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:01PM The Joy of Cooking DeMat said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:07PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:10PM Cats said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:16PM Vidikron said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:47PM Chibi Chaingun said

Posted: Jan 4th 2011 12:55PM Vidikron said

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