500,000 Wiis sold in Australia

The Nintendo Wii can claim another feather in its already impressive sales cap this week, with Nintendo Australia announcing that as of July 20, the Wii has sold more than 500,000 units to the Australian market. The hardware took a mere 84 weeks to reach the half-million mark, making it the fastest console to reach the sales milestone. The previous record holders, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS handheld, both reached the figure in 107 weeks of sale. Independent sales tracker GfK Australia confirmed the figures to GameSpot AU.

Nintendo Australia also took the opportunity to announce that over the same July sales audit period, its other popular console, the Nintendo DS handheld, had surpassed the 1.2 million units sold mark. The figures reinforce the continued dominance of the products in the Australian market, and in one week at the beginning of July, the DS sold in excess of 49,000 units--the highest single number of consoles ever sold in a week down under.

The figures are in line with significant sales growth outlined by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) earlier this month--numbers which saw Australia surpass the A$1.57 billion sales mark and game hardware sales grow by 74 percent.

In the press release, future Wii and DS games were also given release dates for Australia. Trauma Center: Second Opinion is opening for surgery on August 28, while Wario Land: The Shake Dimension (formerly known as Wario Land: Shake It! in the US) will arrive on the Wii on September 25. On the DS, Etrian Odyssey comes out on August 14; Make 10: A Journey of Numbers is set for a September 4 release; and Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir is due in October.