Discussion may still abound about the mobile shift in handheld gaming markets, but the 3DS is showing all the signs of recovery Nintendo would have hoped for after its shaky launch.
Japanese sales figures for 2011, collated by 4Gamer and Media Create, reveal the extent of the holiday season spike in 3DS sales in its home market compared to other gaming devices.
Its 40 percent price cut, combined with strong first party releases saw Nintendo's newest handheld leaving its competitors in the dust.
And as the PS Vita made its late December 2012 entry into the market, the month-by-month lists of sales also show the death of Sony's ill-fated PSPgo.
Un-charted
Below you can see a colour-coded chart, with the light purple line representing the 3DS.
As you can see the massive holiday sales spike of 1.6 million sales dwarfs the second place PS Vita, which managed just over 430,000 sales.
The PSPgo reached a grand total of zero sales in December, though how it has managed to survive this long is a subject of debate in itself.
The tables below show month-by-month hardware sales for 2011.
The first two columns show total sales for 2011 and total lifetime sales respectively.
Price wars
As for the most popular games of 2011, three 3DS titles took the top three spots in 2011 sales. Mario Kart 7 was in first place with 1,160,169 sales, followed by Super Mario 3D Land with 1,080,192.
Third place was taken by Monster Hunter 3G from Capcom, selling 985,498 before the end of the year, though it has since gone on to become the third 3DS title to sell over a million units.
[source: 4Gamer (Japanese), via Andriasang]
News
When Matt was 7 years old he didn't write to Santa like the other little boys and girls. He wrote to Mario. When the rotund plumber replied, Matt's dedication to a life of gaming was established. Like an otaku David Carradine, he wandered the planet until becoming a writer at Pocket Gamer.
Top Stories
News
2 hours, 28 minutes ago
Delta game emulator hits No. 1 on the App Store download charts in 35 countries
News
4 hours, 27 minutes ago
Week in Views - The search for skills, billion dollar birthdays and terrific transmedia
News
5 hours, 13 minutes ago
Get practical tips into key game development tools and methodologies at the Dubai GameExpo Summit
News
5 hours, 28 minutes ago
PocketGamer.biz Podcast - DoubleDown Interactive’s Faith Price on lifecycle marketing tips to extend your app’s lifespan
News
6 hours, 50 minutes ago
Rovio's Angry Birds environmental campaign comes in to land on Earth Day
News
4 hours, 27 minutes ago
Week in Views - The search for skills, billion dollar birthdays and terrific transmedia
Feature
7 hours, 28 minutes ago
New release roundup: Take That: This is Life, Neopets: Tales of Dacardia, Persona 5: The Phantom X and more
Feature
11 hours, 22 minutes ago
Speaker Spotlight: Xsolla's Chris Meredith on making the most of D2C and today's revenue opportunities
Events
HIT Games Conference Istanbul 2024 | Apr 18th | |
Game Job Fair – Spring Edition 2024 | Nordic | Apr 18th |
Arts DAO Fest 2.0 | Middle East | Apr 20th |
App Promotion Summit London | Europe | Apr 25th |
Esports Future Summit | Middle East | Apr 27th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
The MENA Games Industry Awards 2024 | Middle East | May 2nd |
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th |