Nintendo DS Worldwide Sales: 21 Million and Counting

Press Release

July 24, 2006, 7:18 am EDT
Total comments: 17

Nintendo-math equates that to 23 systems being sold every minute since launch. In yo FACE, Gizmondo!

Nintendo News: The World Goes Portable with Nintendo DS - 21 Million Sold!

REDMOND, Wash., July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Nintendo delivers on its promise

to bring video gaming to the masses. In less than two years since its Nov.

21, 2004 launch, Nintendo has sold more than 21 million Nintendo DS™

systems worldwide. By comparison, Apple® shipped one million of its ever-

popular iPod® music players in its first 19 months. The rate of Nintendo DS

units being sold equates to 23 systems per minute -- that's nearly one every

two seconds -- non-stop since launch.

"We're thrilled to be announcing this milestone today," says George

Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and

corporate communications, "especially since Nintendo DS was North America's

top-selling video game system of any type in June. We attribute this success

to Nintendo's overall strategy of offering something for everyone -- from

five-year-olds caring for their Nintendogs to 65-year-olds tuning their mental

agility with Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day."

Nintendo recently launched the new version of its popular portable system,

DS Lite, featuring a smaller profile and more brilliant display. Beyond

appealing attributes such as dual screens, a touch screen, a microphone and

seamless Wi-Fi play, DS popularity also is being propelled by a unique mix of

software that appeals equally to mainstream players and those new to the

category.

The Touch Generations line of fun and accessible games for all ages and

skill sets features the red-hot Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a

Day and Big Brain Academy™, as well as the enormously popular and

innovative Nintendogs™. Nintendo DS sales success is also supported by

video gaming sensations, New Super Mario Bros.® and Animal Crossing®: Wild

World.

To satiate the video gaming palates of the 21 million Nintendo DS owners

worldwide, Nintendo continues to increase its software offerings with Star

Fox® Command, Mario vs. Donkey Kong™ 2: March of the Minis, Clubhouse

Games™ and more games launching in the months ahead. Nintendo DS and DS

Lite owners currently enjoy more than 130 Nintendo DS software titles -- and

880 Game Boy® Advance software titles in single play mode -- all playable on

their portable DS systems.

Talkback

ShyGuyJuly 24, 2006

So does this mean the DS has surpassed Gamecube sales?

Smash_BrotherJuly 24, 2006

If they can do this with the Wii, they'll spank the bejeezus out of the PS3 AND the 360 with ease.

PryopizmStan Ferguson, Staff AlumnusJuly 24, 2006

The same could be said about the GBA. Mr. Skeptic (me) will keep a wait and see attitude. Should be interesting, regardless. Especially since PS3 is so far out of the mass market price range.

TJ SpykeJuly 24, 2006

I believe so, the GameCube is at about 20.2 million systems. This is just amazing how well the DS is doing.
Of coarse if this was Sony they would report how many systems they shipped shipped to make it sound larger.

CericJuly 24, 2006

The funny thing is for Nintendo in Japan that's probably the same number.

ShyGuyJuly 24, 2006

I was reading about those shipped numbers from Sony. Apparently they aren't even shipped-to-stores numbers. They are shipped-from-factory numbers. So all the PSPs sitting in Sony warehouses count too.

archioverloadJuly 24, 2006

FWIW on that note, pulled this from Gamasutra:

Quote
Nintendo also forecast sales of 6 million units of the new console for the year ending March 2007, on software sales of 17 million units.

KaironCarmine Red, Associate EditorJuly 24, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: archioverload
FWIW on that note, pulled this from Gamasutra:

Quote
Nintendo also forecast sales of 6 million units of the new console for the year ending March 2007, on software sales of 17 million units.

Those are Wii estimates.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

archioverloadJuly 24, 2006

Yes...sorry, I should have indicated that...I was responding to someone earlier upthread who was talking about Nintendo projections for the Wii.

JonLeungJuly 24, 2006

Funny, this.

'Cause my supervisor just asked me to bring my DS Lite to work tomorrow and show her Brain Age because she's really considering getting a DS Lite especially for it.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJuly 24, 2006

It's a trap.

FlonneJuly 24, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
Funny, this.

'Cause my supervisor just asked me to bring my DS Lite to work tomorrow and show her Brain Age because she's really considering getting a DS Lite especially for it.

My aunt who is in her 60s just bought a DS Lite after playing Big Brain Academy on mine. She later sent me a picture of my 86 year old grandmother playing sudoku on the DS Lite.

Family reunions are going to become multiplayer events soon.

Spak-SpangJuly 24, 2006

IF Nintendo Wii is able to become popular in Japan alone...then the Wii will sell out of 7 million units by December alone. (Just look at the DS and Japanese crazy.)

Now imagine if the Wii is able to have better success than the Gamecube in the US and Europe...and have the DS like sales in Japan.

Then we would have a Mega Hit for Nintendo.

Now, obviously, the Wii can't sustain the same sales numbers as the DS because you only need one per household. But I think It could become a huge hit none the less.

MaryJaneJuly 24, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: PGC NewsBot
Nintendo-math equates that to 23 systems being sold every minute since launch. In yo FACE, Gizmondo!

So... 525,600 minutes how do you measure, measure a year? No but really, 525,600 minutes in a year, so divide by 12, and that makes 43,800 minutes in a month. So divide by 19 (and 20 cuz i count 20 months but article relates to 19 month period) and you get 832,200 (876,00) and now divide by 21,000,000 and you get, .039 (.041). Which means (I think) that every .039 minutes or every 2.34 (2.46) seconds a DS was sold. Which is, 25.6 (24.8) a minute.

Nintendo math?

I wonder why Nintendo would sell themselves short? Unless it was 21 months, which i don't feel like calculating all over again.

Who the hell is Gizmondo?