3DS fastest console to sell 5 million units in Japan

Posted February 20, 2012 by Jamie Donnelly in Industry News, News.

News: The Nintendo 3DS has become the fastest console to hit 5 million sales in Japan.

We already knew that the 3DS was the fast-selling Nintendo console to date, and that it outsold the Nintendo Wii in the first nine months, but now it seems those high sales have helped it break records outside of Nintendo as well. It’s become the fastest console to sell 5 million units in Japan, an impressive feat considering its reportedly slow start.

Here at BeefJack, we don’t jump to such rash conclusions, and we certainly didn’t post a blog asking if we should say R.I.P to the 3DS. Nope, that definitely wasn’t us. In fairness, we weren’t alone, as even analysts and investors were sure that the 3DS was on a downward spiral.

Nintendo has released a chart (via Andriasang) that highlights the sales trends for the GameBoy Advance, Wii, DS, and 3DS. The 3DS was clearly a slow starter, so the doom and gloom was warranted, but the last few months have seen a steep incline in sales for the 3D handheld.

Well, Nintendo’s tortoise strategy clearly worked, and the early price-cut saved the console’s bacon (tortoise bacon is a rare delicacy, I hear). Now that it’s selling comfortably, we’ve turned our attention to the PS Vita’s poor sales: could Sony be playing the tortoise card as well? It’s too early to tell, and this time we’ll be waiting patiently to see how it pans out.

You can find all the latest 3DS news right here at BeefJack.

Tagged as 3DS, 3DS sales, 3DS sales Japan, Nintendo