Nintendo: 3DS software sales up 52% year-on-year in US

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Nintendo's 3DS is holding on strong to its place in the hardware charts, backed up by some successful software ? and by "some" we mean "2.1 million first-party titles" in the first four months of 2013, in the US only. This is an increase of 52 percent over the same period last year.

Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold 94,000 physical and digital copies in the US since its launch on April 24 and hit No. 9 on the April NPD chart. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sold 140,000 units in April, for a lifetime total of 530,000 in the states.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter expected the 3DS to be the only major console with sales up from April 2012, with the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and Vita down year-over-year. Pachter found the Vita down 57 percent, while the 3DS was up 46 percent with 185,000 sales.

PRESS RELEASE:

May 16, 2013

Nintendo News

Nintendo 3DS First-Party Software Sales Are Up 52 Percent in 2013

A strong launch for LEGO? City Undercover: The Chase Begins helped Nintendo 3DS? maintain its torrid pace in 2013. Through the first four months of the year, Nintendo has already sold more than 2.1 million units of first-party Nintendo 3DS software in the U.S. alone, an increase of 52 percent over the same time period last year. In 2012, it took 30 weeks for Nintendo 3DS to sell 2 million units of first-party software. In 2013, the platform accomplished that same feat in 18 weeks.

With the peak holiday selling season still ahead and a strong lineup of upcoming games that includes Donkey Kong Country? Returns 3D on May 24, Animal Crossing?: New Leaf on June 9, Mario and Luigi?: Dream Team on Aug. 11, as well as new titles in the Pok?mon?, Mario Golf? and Legend of Zelda? franchises, Nintendo 3DS is poised to have the strongest year of sales in its history.

Some notable sales numbers* achieved by Nintendo in April include:

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold nearly 94,000 combined physical and digital copies after launching on April 24.

Luigi's Mansion?: Dark Moon sold more than 140,000 combined physical and digital units in April and has now sold more than 530,000 total units to date.

In its sixth month on the market, New Super Mario Bros.? U for the Wii U? system increased its lifetime sales total to nearly 770,000 combined physical and digital units.

During the next several months, a cavalcade of fan-favorite franchises will launch for Wii U. This includes Game & Wario? on June 23, Pikmin? 3 on Aug. 4, Disney's Planes from Disney Interactive on Aug. 6 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell? Blacklist? from Ubisoft on Aug. 20. At the upcoming E3 trade show in June in Los Angeles, Nintendo expects to show attendees upcoming Wii U games from the Mario Kart?, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Bros.? franchises.

*Data regarding physical sales of games in April are from the NPD Group. Data regarding digital downloads of games and combined physical/digital life-to-date numbers are from Nintendo's internal sales figures. All numbers are specific to the United States only.