Wii and Nintendo DS Outsell NES and GameBoy

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Having updated its lifetime hardware sales figures, Nintendo today confirmed that the Wii has outsold the Nintendo Entertainment System--making Wii the "best selling Nintendo home videogame console of all time"--while the Nintendo DS has replaced the GameBoy as its best-selling hardware of all time.

"Needless to say, these are just two milestones of a larger journey in our efforts to reach the ultimate goal of bringing one home console for every household and one handheld for everyone," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained in his presentation.

A breakdown of some top-selling Wii and Nintendo DS games accompanied the revelation, with the original Wii Sports--bundled with Wii hardware everywhere except Japan, where it is sold seperately--now at 60.69 million copies worldwide.

    Nintendo DS Software - Lifetime Sales of Select Titles
    • Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - 3.7 million
    • Pokemon Platinum - 6.86 million
    • New Super Mario Bros. - 21.39 million
    • Tomodachi Collection - 2.74 million
    • Mario Kart DS - 17.28 million
    • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - 2.45 million
    • Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - 2.23 million
    • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - 2.62 million
    • Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 3.04 million
    • Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - 1.33 million
    • Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day - 18.59 million

    Wii Software - Lifetime Sales of Select Titles
    • Wii Sports - 60.60 million
    • Wii Sports Resort - 13.58 million
    • New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 10.55 million
    • Wii Fit Plus - 10.16 million
    • Mario Kart Wii - 21.22 million
    • Wii Fit - 22.56 million
    • Wii Play - 26.71 million

As for the relevant portion of Iwata's presentation, here's what he had to say:

Family Computer System, called Nintendo Entertainment System or NES in short in overseas markets, had sold 61.91 million units, which was the largest unit sales figure for any Nintendo home videogame consoles.

The cumulative sales of Wii hardware from Nintendo to our distributors and retail customers reached 67.45 million units as of the end of December 2009. It has replaced NES to become the best selling Nintendo home videogame console of all time.

Among handheld hardware, GameBoy series have sold through 118.69 million units in total since the launch, which was the largest unit sales figure among all Nintendo's hardware products.

As of the end of December 2009, when Wii marked the record LTD sales as the number one selling Nintendo home console, the life-to-date shipments of Nintendo DS series reached 125.13 million units, which has now become largest sales figure among all of the Nintendo's videogame hardware.

Needless to say, these are just two milestones of a larger journey in our efforts to reach the ultimate goal of bringing one home console for every household and one handheld for everyone.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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