Nintendo says American consumers bought more than 1 million units of its Nintendo DS and DSi portable consoles during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, along with more than half a million Wii consoles.
The company's sales numbers apply to the period from Sunday, November 22 to Saturday, November 28, which encompasses the legendary post-Thanksgiving shopping day "Black Friday." The figures come from Nintendo's own "internal tracking numbers" rather than an outside firm such as NPD.
Sales breakdowns by DS model were not given. Nintendo says the systems' performance eclipses the previous Thanksgiving week for portable console sales, set by its own Game Boy Advance in 2002. That year, sales of that system were also reported in the neighborhood of one million for the Thanksgiving week period.
Wii sales for the week exceeded 550,000, with Nintendo says reflects positively on the system's price drop to $199.99. "Holiday shoppers are finding value in our products' prices, and through a gameplay experience that is unique to Nintendo," said Nintendo sales and marketing VP Cammie Dunaway.
As is customary for the house of Mario, the company diligently included per-minute sales averages for its systems in an official statement. It pointed out that 150 Nintendo systems were sold every minute of the week -- "or more than 2.5 every second," it added.
