Layton's Unwound Future and Kirby's Epic Yarn join Nintendo's million-seller club

In a supplemental document to Nintendo's latest quarterly earnings report, the company noted its million-sellers during the past three fiscal quarters (April–Dec. 2010), with Professor Layton and pink power-puff Kirby standing out from the games featuring keywords: Mario, Pokémon and Wii. Through the end of 2010, DS puzzler Professor Layton and the Unwound Future had reached global sales of 1.9 million units since its September 12 debut, while Dragon Quest IX just squeezed into the million-seller club with 1.02 million copies sold (since July 11).

The Wii-llion seller list for the nine-month period featured several Mario and Wii [Fill in Blank] games, but Donkey Kong Country Returns was also a popular pick, moving a bananas 4.21 million units since its late-November release. Additionally, Kirby's Epic Yarn managed to stitch up sales of 1.4 million units in two and a half months at retail.

Sitting on top of DS and Wii million-sellers for the period were Pokemon Black/White with 5.3 million copies sold (and it's not even out in North America and Europe yet!) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 with a hearty 6.2 million units in mushroom-fueled sales, respectively.

Reader Comments (28)

Glad to hear all those games sold well. Hard to tell with the NPD reports being as they are now!

@ilduce620 doesn't you mean NGP?

@yoshi95
No. He doesn't. You suck.

4.21 million copies of DKCR, you say? Sequel now.

I feel like those numbers become slightly less impressive when you realize that there are 140'ish million DS's out there, and what, 85 million Wii's?

Still, I'm glad DKCR is doing well enough. I hear great things about it, and who doesn't love Donkey Kong?

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Good god shut up already

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

That's just a load of crap you're saying.

I'm sure no game for the ps2 managed to sell 140 million copies either. In fact, the most accurate source i can get for the 30 seconds i care about this is a list on wikipedia that says the best selling ps2 game was GTA: San andreas at 17m copies.

Guess that was a flop

[30 seconds over]

@Co

Aww, poor baby.

Want a tissue? :)

"The Wii-llion seller list... moving a bananas 4.21 million units... managed to stitch up... 6.2 million units in mushroom-fueled sales, respectively..."

God, I love Joystiq!

=p

At picture: ''Objection!''

Not until Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright

Its always nice to see good games do well.

Although it becomes apparent why Nintendo's so willing to ensure that 3rd party title will sell on the 3DS in order to attract more developers when you look at sales figures like these.

I keep wanting to read "Epic Yarn" as "Epic Yam".

@Faceless Troll
I'm sure Kirby would love to eat an epic yam.

Easy to sell well when your competition is shovelware. Wish my DS had more titles like this and, well, Layton is basically a glorified logic puzzle book!(not that it's bad, but my DS has been light on substantial core titles lately)

Kirby was good. It deserves the success. I'm not surprised it was awesome considering it was done by the guy who did wario shake it ... The best wii game by far and one of the top 3 platformers this gen. Both blow galaxy out of the water in my opinion.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

You should have posted your comment WITHOUT that last sentence.

Reminder to self: Get Epic Yarn. Consider getting Epic Mickey.

Nintendo gaming has had a busy time lately.

Prof Layton was amazing, but since I finished it 2 weeks ago, I sort of feel empty without any Layton. I'm saving the Layton movie until a quieter time in my schedule.

Galaxy 2 was more of Galaxy 1 - pure sheer unadulterated joy.

DKCR is still in my Wii drive and has a lot of worlds to complete, but loving what I've experienced from the first few worlds so far. Donkey Kong was always great for platformers, so nice to see it has continued.

A good gentleman always sells a lot.
...wait that didn't come out right.

Easy there, I only asked him if he meaned NGP. I thought it would make sence if he meaned that, since, as we all know, there are a hell l

Easy there, I just asked if he meaned NGP. I thought that it would make sence if he did, since there are a hell lot of buzz around that ridiculous SONY handheld. I'm definitely not a SONY fanboy, I'm sticking to Nintendo.

I can't wait to get my 3DS so I can play the newest Layton game. I managed to get to play the first two on a borrowed DS and absolutely adore them. I don't see the point in buying a DS now as march is so close so I will have to hold off till then. Do you think they will release the fourth game in the states (the one that is already out in Japan) on the DS or just jump to the fifth game which is coming out on the 3DS?

So does that mean we will see some price drops like you do on some PSX games when they hit the million sales mark or is it just a sales number that is passively interesting?

So glad the DKC Returns sold well, congrats to Retro for making an awesome game!

That long tail Nintendo seems to have never stops wagging

This is good news. I loved Epic Yarn and it's the first game that my wife - not a gamer at all - played with me through to the end and became a little obsessed, really. That says something about it and it's was pure joy playing it.

I've just recently started to play DKCR and holy snap it is awesome. I'm addicted. I thought I was doing awesome and had built up about 65 extra life balloons when all of a sudden I went through about 30 of them on one level. NICE! It's making me quite nostalgic hearing some of the old tunes updated, as well.

Also, Nintendo really needs to get with it and reduce the prices of some of the Wii's great games and label them as 'Player's Choice' or 'Million Sellers' or 'Greatest Hits' or whatever the hell they want to call it. Just do it, Ninty! You should be proud of the great games the system has seen over the last year and act accordingly.

Really surprised that Kirby's Epic Yam was a big hit, given how many people on forums were complaining about how looked too easy, kiddy, etc

Also really surprised me that Layton still manages to pull out new puzzles after all this time.

@Crayola Q Pants ESQ Let that be a lesson to you: People on forums make up a very loud and annoying minority when it comes to ... just about everything.

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Layton's Unwound Future and Kirby's Epic Yarn join Nintendo's million-seller club

Reader Comments (28)

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:32PM ilduce620 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:36PM yoshi95 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:49PM KirbyCommando said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:39PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:45PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:01PM Co said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:31PM Nekki said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 2:41PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:48PM FernandoRocker said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:50PM konali said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:24PM Elranzer said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 12:59PM Red Deer said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:00PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:40PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:03PM Rather Dashing said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:06PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 2:55PM Co said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:42PM mrmobius said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 1:48PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 2:12PM yoshi95 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 2:16PM yoshi95 said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 2:01PM huhwhosethere said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 2:18PM Scuffles said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 3:06PM motang said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 3:11PM Lerkero said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 3:14PM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Jan 28th 2011 3:37PM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

Posted: Jan 29th 2011 8:32AM Epoque said

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