Nintendo recently released its current earnings report, and it's now safe to say that the Nintendo DS system has become the best-selling handheld video game system of all time.
According to Nintendo, the DS line of systems sold approximately 27.11 million units worldwide this year, bringing the total number of DS systems sold across the globe to 128.89 million units. That's quite a bit above and beyond the 119 million unit sales of their previously best-selling Game Boy line of systems.
With the recent announcement of their upcoming 3DS system, there's certainly no doubt that sales of the DS line of systems should taper off a bit, but it also means the 3DS has got quite a task in front of it if it's to ever have a shot at toppling the mammoth sales success of the Nintendo DS. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
[source wii.ign.com]
Comments 23
Claps for DS line What a suprise.
Does DS deserve the accolade as much as the Game Boy did, though? As much as I absolutely adore the DS, the sheer number of casual DS owners who still call themselves "gamers" dirties the water for me a bit here.
Not surprising, but go DS! WOOOOT!!!
What upsets me is that the DS is still puffing steam and Nintendo decides to announce their next handheld. Waaaayyy too soon.
There's probably still 100M potential sales, but hey, I don't own the company.
Proves the DS prints money.
@ cipher the casual animosity has got to STOP.
I'm a casual but I bet I can beat you at halo and gears of war if i wanted to, but I'd rather play Wii Fit and lose some calories or play Wii Sports with my friends.
Nice! Good job Nintendo!
GO NINTENDO DS GO!
NEXT UP.... breaking the PS2's record!!!!
@cipher - is "gamers" like you that dirties gaming in general.
Not surprising, truth be told. The DS is definitely the most popular of all the handheld game systems; everywhere you go, someone's playing one. I don't remember any of the Gameboys and certainly not the PSP being this big.
Haha take that PSP
The DS was already #1, we just didn't know when it happened because Nintendo combined sales of Game Boy and Game Boy Color together.
And yet there's still people who think the DS is only for little kids.....go figure. Keep on truckin' DS!
This is not news to me. I've known that the DS was the best handheld system for years now.
Just a few million DS'es more to outsell the PS2!
This was actually already confirmed after Nintendo released their sales figures for the holiday season, but still, Go DS!!
Yaaaaaaaa Nintendo rules! This is the greatest part of being a fanboy! Victory!
Do the GB numbers include GBC and/or GBA?
In a world of handheld systems updating every year, I doubt any single system will be around long enough to overtake these numbers in the sales charts. While console generations may be getting longer, it seems handheld generations are getting shorter. Of course, if the GB was around significantly longer than the DS (esp. if you include GBC) ,so who knows.
GB keep in market like 14 years (gbc/gba included), i doubt DS in e years surpassed the GB family.
The Nintendo DS deserves the title of being more of a success than the GBA, it's much more innovative and has much better games.
If you play games, you're a "gamer." That's all that word implies. Any other special implication or context is all in your head.
Also, by my math: Gameboy line was 1989-2004 and the DS line has been 2004-2010. So it overtook what took the GB sold in 15 years in just 6, give or take.
Jeez. Nintendo better release a free game with 3DS, proably a Wii Sports ttype thing. Crazy sales, I have like 11 of those with my family combined, even though traded mine in every 2 years at best buy, but I think those still count as sales...
The 119 million is combined sales for Game Boy, GB Pocket and GB Color. If you include GBA/SP/Micro then the figure is around 200 million.
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