Today saw the monthly NPD data release, which provides sales details for gaming software and hardware in the U.S. The results for May didn't feature any Nintendo titles in the software top ten, possibly due to a fairly heavy-hitting month of releases on other platforms.
There was some positive news for Nintendo, as 3DS was the only system to enjoy a year-on-year increase over its sales in May 2011, with a 17% improvement. Eurogamer.net estimate that this puts the handheld's sales for May at around 113,000 units. While still not at the level of the country's leading seller, Xbox 360, this increase is positive as last May, of course, wasn't long after the launch itself.
With a growing games library and more on the way, this is a sign that the system is achieving a decent level of consistency, and will no doubt hope to improve as the year progresses.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 18
I wonder what caused the bump in sales? The 3DS only really has 2 major system sellers (MK7 and SMBL), and they both came out last year. Still, that's one more than Vita, which only really has Uncharted.
The 3DS is an awesome system and has many great games now (I have 19 very good 3DS games atm) but hasn't quite reached it's full sales potential in the West! Nice to see it's slowly getting there though!
New color probably helped with sales. And its year over year. Last year at this time, it was still $250
Funny how well 3DS is doing, and how pathetic the psvita is doing.
Sony just doesn't seem to understand the meaning of "portable" when it comes to there portables Releasing PS3 style games on a portable isn't the way
@Wesker If that's the way you feel then you a truly missing out! Add Kid Icarus and Resident Evil Revelation to that list. Both belong in any 3ds collection. Not to mention many other quality games along with the eshop games as well.
@Wesker The Vita really is underrated in my honest opinion, lets not forget that it now has Gravity Rush (an excellent game, had a lot of fun playing it yesterday), Katamari, Lumines, Resistance & Wipeout also...5 games well worth having which at this stage in the 3DS's life last year before SM 3DS Land and MK7 came out....I'm pretty sure it didn't have more than 5 games worth owning itself.
But undeniably, at this stage in time, the 3DS is a better investment thanks to it's wider variety of games both retail and download, as Tech101 points out.
Awesome! Last may the price was still 250$ though...
3DS actually sold more hardware units by far in Japan this month, which is unusual since that's a smaller market. But they do love their handhelds, and Nintendo has really been dominating there lately.
I don't doubt vita is a good system
but I'm telling the truth when I say me little brother and I laughed when we saw how big it was.Im not tall at all.and I carry my 3ds in my pocket no prob everyday
I would have to get a bag to carry it around and it joy sticks are way to small.
but uncharted did look great!but I have 19 great 3ds games and like 40 on the system with my old dsi games and new games like 3d classics ect.
I do wonder if Nintendo will ever convince me to buy a 3DS. I just don't like the fact that I can't share my experience and it's such a tiny cramped area for controls. For the most part I don't have time to play games alone.
If I could play a few of these games on the Wii U via emulation or screen sharing of some kind, I'd be more into it. Not sure how that would work though.
If the right kind of Metroid or Zelda comes along, I'll be in trouble, though.
Probably since Kingdom Hearts is coming out soon.
Once a Pokemon game comes out it'll increase even more
@ToxieDogg, Resistance a must have? IGN gave it a 5.5/10.
With that said, if I ever have the extra money, I'd love to get a Vita (Uncharted, Ninja Gaiden, and Gravity Rush would all be mine).
More on topic though, it's good to see 3DS doing well. I suspect the sales bump was due to the upcoming releases of Kingdom Hearts, and to a lesser extent, Heroes of Ruin.
When Gamefreak ditch their lazy attitude and release a main Pokemon game for the 3DS....those sales figures will explode
i have both vita and 3ds and i play my 3ds everyday. Every week i go to my local gaming store to see if there is a must have vita game but i leave pissed everytime. I have downloaded a few psp titles just so i will use the dam thing but the games take 3 hours to download and by the time they are done im doing something else. my 3ds downloads titles in less than 5 min and i know they are smaller games with less data to download but come on 2-3 hours is way to long to wait. Guess i will see how long it takes to download new super mario 3ds hope its not too long but im sure it will be an over nighter. lol
I bet its because of all the E3 announcements. Maybe some people thought "hey, these great titles are coming this holiday season why not buy a 3ds now?"
@hendie001 I don't think It'll take too long to download 3DS retails.. they don't seem to be THAT bad. I'm thinking a game like RE: Revelations would take overnight, but Super Mario 3D Land should only take up to maybe 2-3 hours.
Otherwise, this is great news! Such a fun system and the games are good!
3DS: the most underrated system! That is all.
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