DS Becomes Fastest Selling Japanese Console

According to a report from Japanese newspaper Kyoto Simbun, the Nintendo DS has become the fastest console or handheld ever to sell 10 million units in Japan, taking just 20 months to reach the milestone, an extremely impressive feat for the Kyoto-headquartered firm. As noted in the report, which was translated by consumer website GameSpot, the Nintendo DS has been credited with reversing the shrinking Japanese games market, with Nintendo DS software and hardware dominating sales charts for at least the last twelve months. With a population of around 128 million, these latest results show that nearly 8 percent of Japanese consumers now own the console. The DS Lite has already sold 2.34 million units in two months in Japan, with the newly redesigned version of the harder also appearing to stimulate sales in North America and Europe and continuing Nintendo's successful handheld spell. The Kyoto Simbun also claims that “about” ten Nintendo DS titles have gone platinum in Japan, with sales of over one million copies. According to current sales data these would include Animal Crossing: Wild World, Brain Training (aka Brain Age) 1 and 2, New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart DS, Nintendogs, English Training, Brain Flex (aka Big Brain Academy), Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop and Wario Ware Touched! Super Mario 64 DS is also on the cusp of turning platinum, with Tetris DS currently at just over 800,000 units sold. According to Nintendo’s recent financial report, in which the company saw sales increase by 85 percent to $1.12bn, worldwide sales for the format are now in excess of 21 million units. Nintendo currently expects to sell 17 million units of the console in the current fiscal year, ending March 2007, alongside 75 million units of software.