DS outsells GBA, Wii sales near 35M

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Oct 30, 2008 7:32 am PT

More than 84 million handhelds sold as console's popularity continues unabated; Nintendo snips annual income forecast by 16 percent--but still projects $3.5 billion profit.

For years, the Game Boy Advance had the distinction of being the best-selling portable game platform of all time. No longer. Today, Nintendo announced that its old-school handheld has been overtaken by its double-vision-stricken younger sibling, the DS. According to Nintendo, the handheld has sold 84.33 million units worldwide since being introduced in November 2004, generating a staggering 454.63 million in DS software sales. Since its debut in 2001, the Game Boy Advance has sold 81.36 million units.

Say hello to Nintendo's little friend.

Sales of Nintendo's Wii aren't exactly shabby either. Since its launch in November 2006, the plucky console has sold 34.55 million units. Of those, 10.1 million were bought during the first half of Nintendo's fiscal year, which ended on September 30. From January to the end of June, 81.41 million Wii games were purchased internationally, bringing the platform's cumulative software haul to a whopping 229.85 million units.

The DS and Wii sales figures were part of Nintendo's earnings report for the first half of its 2008 fiscal year. Income for that period totaled ¥836.9 billion ($8.85 billion), a 10.4 percent rise from the same period in 2007. Net income--otherwise known as "profit"--rose 9.4 percent year over year to hit ¥144.8 billion ($1.48 billion). The company called out such games as Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Pokemon Platinum, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness as best-sellers.

Unfortunately, Nintendo's cash-minting operation has been somewhat hamstrung by international exchange rates. So far this year, the Japanese yen has climbed 14 percent against the US dollar and 27 percent against the Euro, according to the Bloomberg news service. As a result, Nintendo is now cutting its full-year forecast by 16 percent, and now only--only--expects a annual net income of ¥345 billion ($3.5 billion) for its current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2009.

179 Comments

  • Darkof

    Posted Dec 18, 2008 12:19 pm PT

    Answer on "Where are the games Nintendo?": It's in Japan. One of the reason why they can't release games in Us and Eu is the short of staff in translating them.

  • SEr_803

    Posted Nov 30, 2008 6:32 pm PT

    pwn.

  • Dark_knight109

    Posted Nov 26, 2008 11:43 pm PT

    Looks like the DS is on its way to trouncing the PS2 as best-selling console ever.

  • Fire_EmblemFan

    Posted Nov 10, 2008 3:02 pm PT

    congrats nintendo!

  • FNKYMNK

    Posted Nov 10, 2008 1:57 pm PT

    Anema, are you being sarcastic? Sony definately hasn't taken over the game industry, not just sale wise, their are only a handfull of great games exclusively on the PS3. Nintendo may have the most sales, but it's not us buying the stuff, it's our parents and younger siblings. In my opinion Xbox360 is the superior system this generation, call me a fanboy all you want but Sony and especially Nintendo have gone way downhill.

  • Anema1986

    Posted Nov 5, 2008 10:12 am PT

    good for Nintendo
    since the failures of the N64 and GC thanks to the crappy memory of the cartrige and disc, it seems that Sony has taken over the game industry, but Nintendo has proven the contrary.
    So good is the Wii, that Sony has patent a sensitive control to match Wii controls, pathetic from them, since the PS3 doesnt really need those kind of controls, since there true rival isnt Nintendo, is Microsoft

  • Fareru

    Posted Nov 3, 2008 3:21 pm PT

    It's nice to hear that Nintendo is still doing well. The DS has quickly become one of my favorite platforms since I only picked my first one up this past September. I'm not a huge fan of the Wii, but I do want Nintendo to keep on truckin' through to the next gen games.

  • acsam12304

    Posted Nov 3, 2008 10:15 am PT

    yeah i can say Wii and DS has a lot of games then teh PS3 but how many of the Wii games can you actully play using the Wiimote? most of the game you just cant i wonder how skate is goign to be witht he Wii fit pad. one little jump and it has to reload your feel on the pad.

    with the DS NOW we can say that the DSi is copying the PSP the . but if you look at all your going to get is extra features in a new handled b ut same grpahics

  • acsam12304

    Posted Nov 3, 2008 10:08 am PT

    khoofia_pika
    you suck

  • acsam12304

    Posted Nov 3, 2008 10:05 am PT

    na ill still stick with my PSP

  • Shtinky

    Posted Nov 3, 2008 2:31 am PT

    ricardo-sene: That's sad. And that's the point. I had to change my preferred platform to follow this third-party games I like. Besides the sucess of Nintendo, my preferred platform today is no longer a Nintendo console anymore

    That's nice, but the article is about Nintendo's portable not console, and the DS is the best portable of all time.

  • ricardo-sene

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 5:01 pm PT

    I'd like to post one point to think.

    We all grew up playing nintendo consoles. The most part of us played lots of NES, SNES, N64 and GC games during our history, so Nintendo is just part of our lives. During the GC era we played lot's of excellent third-party games like RE, Prince of Persia, Hitman, etc.. So we started to track these games as well. And now we see new RE5 and Prince of Persia games coming out and we can't play them in our preferred platform. That's sad. And that's the point. I had to change my preferred platform to follow this third-party games I like. Besides the sucess of Nintendo, my preferred platform today is no longer a Nintendo console anymore.

  • Makaatsu

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 2:02 pm PT

    wish i had all the money Nintendo have! They sure got enough of mine!

  • brawl_freak

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 10:46 am PT

    well lets hope nintendo keeps up there momentum, which is going to be harder now for the wii because of the xbox price cuts

  • abvance

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 9:31 am PT

    Might reach 100 million when DSi comes out.

  • mylsd

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 4:55 am PT

    Great job Nintendo, the DS has long been my favorite way to play games, but man there are some whiny people here "where are the games, where are the games" I'm not gonna list all the games I enjoyed, or mention some other console whose game department is lacking, I'll just say Nintendo has exceeded my expectations with both the DS and the Wii!

  • chocolate1325

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 4:54 am PT

    It's amazing the DS has done so well in sales.

  • hotfiree posted Nov 2, 2008 12:49 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    hotfiree

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 12:49 am PT (hide)

    I really dont get why it sells so well, apart from casual gamers. Im really open minded with games but i can count on my hand how many good wii and ds games i like.

  • trw534

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 3:02 pm PT

    i still like the GBA

  • 14113a

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 11:32 am PT

    I completely agree with frazzle, nintendo is loved by many but its an unconditional love. The way nintendo reigon locks games and is then forgiven is really surprising and disheartening.

    one of the other main reasons for nintendos success is the price. nintendo products are significantly cheaper than rival ones (ds; around £110, psp; £130, iPod touch; £149). Although many of the games are fun, original, cutsey and interesting its time people stopped thinking nintendo were the nice kids on the block.

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