In a slight case of blowing one's own trumpet, Nintendo has issued a statement today which reveals that for the month of March, the Nintendo Wii and DS hardware represented nearly 60 percent of all hardware sales in the U.S. This figure comes in by way of the NPD Group, which also notes that Pokemon Platinum Version on the DS sold nearly 805,000 units in the same month, making it the second-best seller for March.
Wii tallied sales of nearly 601,000 in March, while Nintendo DS sold more than half a million, even in advance of the April 5 launch of the new Nintendo DSi system. Both Wii and Nintendo DS extended their lead as the best-selling video game systems of this generation.

"Nintendo systems accounted for 58.4 percent of the video game hardware sold in March, more than all other systems combined," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "Consumers continue to be attracted to the wide range of software available and the great value of Nintendo systems."
According to Nintendo's internal tracking stats, the initial sales figures of the new Nintendo DSi are ahead of the older DS Lite hardware. The DSi sold 435,000 units in its first week in the U.S.

"Hey pal, get your hands off my Poke-mans."



Bryn says: It's impressive to see these kinds of figures, but let's not forget that Nintendo has two platforms to tout versus Sony and Microsoft's one apiece [ed - how about the PSP?]. The DSi is off to a great start in the U.S. and Europe, but I wonder how long it will be before total DSi sales overtake DS Lite's?

As an aside, I've now clocked about 70 hours on Puzzle Quest: Galactrix on the DS. I could have built an extension on the side of my house in the same time. Not.