DSi sales surpass 535K in Japan

Only a few days out, and it was clear that demand for the Nintendo DSi would be strong in Japan. Launched in the island nation on November 1, the second redesign for Nintendo's current-gen portable gaming device sold 170,779 units in its first 48 hours on the market, according to Famitsu publisher and Japanese stat-tracking organization Enterbrain. As noted by the media company in early November, retailers sold through their initial shipments of the ¥18,900 ($179) device within minutes.

Today, Enterbrain reassessed the DSi's position after one month on the market, and apparently, sales have continued their brisk pace. Enterbrain reports that Nintendo's latest handheld moved 535,379 units in the month following its debut. In all, the Nintendo DS, the DS Lite, and the DSi have combined to sell more than 24.2 million units in Japan, a healthy chunk of the global tally of 84.3 million units Nintendo announced in October.

Officially revealed at the beginning of October, the Nintendo DSi is the third iteration of the hardware maker's popular portable, which was first rolled out in 2004. The new model sports a Web browser, music playback, an SD card multimedia storage, a 3-megapixel camera, a smaller inward-facing camera, and photo editing software, as well as larger and brighter dual screens. The new functionality comes at the expense of the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot, which is absent altogether.

According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the DSi won't find its way onto North American store shelves until well into 2009 due to unflagging demand of the DS Lite.