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Today is NPD results day, where physical retail sales for the U.S. are combined with select information that manufacturers decide to provide. In the case of Nintendo, the company has been more than happy to outline its successes in June, largely driven by the 3DS and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

For the second month running the 3DS has been the highest selling dedicated games system in the U.S., selling nearly 225,000 units, which is a 40% increase over the equivalent period last year. Software performed well, too, with New Leaf being the second biggest overall seller (behind The Last of Us on PS3), while Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D secured top 10 spots. Nintendo's given sales figures for those three titles based on NPD's physical retail numbers and internal eShop results; New Leaf sold an exceptional 505,000 copies, with more than 20% of those sales on the eShop, and "sales of the game continue to be strong in July". Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon accumulated around 115,000 sales in its fourth month (lifetime sales 750,000), while Donkey Kong's 3D re-make shifted around 108,000 copies.

In terms of big headline figures, Nintendo states that around 3.6 million physical and download retail first-party titles have been sold on the 3DS in the first six months of the year, an 85% increase over the equivalent period in 2012; as stated above, these are all figures for the U.S.

Of course, there are no Wii U figures highlighted, a reflection of the limited data provided by NPC and Nintendo not being keen to highlight the numbers. As is already commonly known, the company hopes for a significant revival of its home console in the second half of the year, with the press release stressing the extensive lineup coming to both 3DS and Wii U over the rest of the year. Whether Nintendo will share key figures after the launch of Pikmin 3 and other major Wii U releases will be interesting to see, even if we have to wait for the August results (to be issued in mid-September) to find out.

But still, June was clearly the month of the 3DS. Games sell systems, once again.