We think you’d agree that there couldn’t be a better time to bring 3DS Tribe back. Our 3D handheld has seen a stunning three months leading up to 2012, graced with a spectacular software lineup from both first and third parties.
Monster Hunter 3G, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, Tales of The Abyss, Inazuma Eleven Go and Cave Story 3D are just a handful of great boxed games owners have been enjoying to bits this season. And eShop outside of Japan finally received some quality games – Mighty Switch Force, Pullblox/Pushmo and Zen Pinball 3D are all AAA download games. We couldn’t be happier ourselves.
And so Nintendo have managed to turn things round for 3DS, as Enterbrain’s recent sales figures for Japan paint us rosy picture indeed. The hardware saw its best week yet, shifting 510,629 units. Software sales have been no slouch, with both Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D land reaching the one million sales mark, racking up 1,082,391 and 1,042,511 sales respectively. Monster Hunter 3G to follow?
Lifetime 3DS sales in the region now stand at 4,135,739 units, or over those of GameCube’s lifetime sales (as counted to this year: 4,040,000 units) – impressive stuff considering that 3DS has only been on shelves for around ten months. In fact 3DS has sold at a faster rate than the mighty Wii, which was on sale for 54 weeks before outselling GameCube’s lifetime figure.
With just under three months to go until the system’s been on sale for a year, perhaps Nintendo stand a chance at closing in on those predicted worldwide 15 million sales by March 31, 2012, even if it’s taken them a massive price cut to get the momentum going.
It’ll all be down to how well 3DS has done in North America, Europe, and Australia, though. But for Japan, things are very much rosy. New LovePlus, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance and Resident Evil Revelations are three big titles launching early next year in the hope of shifting even more units. Fingers crossed!
With thanks to Andriasang for the latest Japanese 3DS sales statistics.
Related posts:
- 3DS gains huge sales boost in Japan post-price cut
- Is the 3DS sales surge in Japan a sign of things to come for Europe and US?
- Will Steel Diver being delayed in Japan affect its sales?
- Are the worldwide sales of the 3DS enough to silence the system’s doubters?
- 3DS price cut leads to sales resurgence
Nintendo News 24/7
I find this comparison strikes me far harder than the 3DS/DS/PSP/PSV sales comparisons, since the Gamecube played such a weighty role as a home-console when I was younger and had some great 1st party games ‘to boot’. Hope it keeps up the momentum (or maybe 3DSTribe will decide to part our company once again? God forbid!)
And Happy Western New Year, 3DSTribe.
Thank you! And you’re back! Surely a cause for celebration in its own right, your comments were sorely missed.
I actually commented on the last post, but forgot what alias I used here, hahaha. Well I had been a bit tied up with things, but I thought it would be nice to give some support at your time of resurrection. Did you add an M on the end of your name? classy.
Nice one. And don’t worry about it. The “M” materialised as James Bowden has joined our merry team. Are you planning on going to Hyper Japan at the end of February (provided you’re still in London, of course!)?
No plans at the moment since I’m pretty busy (I don’t actually live in London, but I spend a lot of time within an hour-or-so’s travel there). A friend just sent me his photos from Comiket though (that Samus from Max Factory is going on the pre-order list), so I am feeling a bit green. Wasn’t it in July last year? That would be far easier.
No problem, I have no idea what my plans are either so I might not even be going sadly. I’m jealous of your friend too, wish I were there. Are you on Twitter? Think we might have followed the wrong account…
That twitter account is mine – I may have intended to use it more 「昔昔。。。」, but never got around to it. Seems like I was missing out, since you folks seem to have been more active on twitter. I always thought you needed more advertising through the other 3DS sites though. A link in the signature to a few posts on the 3DSbuzz forums, for example.
Not to worry, if you ever do return to Twitter I’ll follow you though (if you don’t mind, natch). Thanks for the heads-up, once the posts get going again it could be a nice idea.
Go ahead, but I can’t comment on the quality of anything I ‘tweet’…
Done!
well the 3ds is the fastest ever selling console (home and handheld) in australia, so it’s certainly selling well down here