Nintendo said Tuesday its Wii has sold over 7 million units in the U.S. for the third year straight, as sales of the console in the country pass 34 million units and its sibling DS (including all models) passes 47 million.
The company, citing internal figures, did not specify an exact number for U.S. Wii sales in 2010, only saying the final annual figure was "more than 7 million."
If total sales were just over 7 million in 2010, that could reflect another year of decline for the Wii. In 2009 in the U.S., the Wii sold over 9.5 million units, according to figures from NPD Group. 2008 saw sales of over 10 million units.
Rivals PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 introduced new motion control solutions in 2010, spurred on by the success of the Wii, in hopes of capturing the same mass market audience.
The Wii launched in late 2006, while the DS launched in 2004 in the U.S. March of this year will see the U.S. introduction of Nintendo's next handheld, the 3DS, the official successor to the aging DS, which Nintendo said is now "the nation's best-selling video game system of all time."
Nintendo of America called 2010's Wii and DS sales "major milestones" for the company. The game maker said three consecutive years of 7 million-plus console unit sales is a first for the industry in the U.S.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said in a statement that 2011 will introduce "new portable technology and more great Wii games that need to be seen to be believed."
