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Nintendo has put out a post NPD press release and it sounds pretty pleased, claiming it has kicked off 2009 with a bang.
While the video game industry grew by $150 million (12 per cent) year-on-year, Nintendo’s total sales grew by $300 million in January, which it says is offsetting declines on other platforms.
Sales of the Wii in January were up 148 per cent over January 2008, selling nearly 680,000 units according to the NPD Group. Wii has now sold more than 18 million units in the United States since it launched in November 2006.
Nintendo also points to a 99 per cent increase in Nintendo DS sales over January 2008. The platform was the top-selling portable with more than 510,000 units sold and has life-to-date sales in the US of more than 28 million units.
“Nintendo’s significant contribution to January’s industry growth validates our internal research showing that Nintendo continues to expand the gaming audience,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We are excited to see that consumers, new and existing, are choosing to entertain themselves in new ways with the diversity of our software line-up.”
20 of the top 30 software titles in January were made for Nintendo systems, the best-selling being Wii Fit at No.1 with more than 777,000 sold, Wii Play at No.2 with nearly 415,000 sold, Mario Kart Wii at No.3 with more than 292,000 sold, New Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo DS at No.7 with nearly 135,000 sold, and Mario Kart DS at No.8 with more than 132,000 sold.
