The company pointed out that this sell-through level means that it beat out
Halo on the Xbox and
Grand Theft Auto 3 on the PS2 during their first days on the shelf.
The news was also good for Nintendo's hardware sales: during its first week, retail partners cited jumps in Nintendo GameCube hardware sales averaging 50 percent.
"This launch is historic -- promising to break longstanding records," said Peter MacDougall, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America Inc. "So far, sales rates for Super Mario Sunshine are running 36 percent ahead of even
Super Mario 64 six years ago -- and that game went on to sell more than 10 million units worldwide."
