By Hector Cortez Jan 5, 2012, 5:54 GMT
Nintendo has lots to celebrate after a fantastic holiday sales season catapulted its products to the top of the charts, breaking records along the way.
Nintendo is laughing all the way to another castle as it counts its holiday coins.
Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS not only became the fastest-selling titles in the history of their respective franchises when they launched, but they are now also the first Nintendo 3DS titles to sell 1 million units each in the United States. On the console side, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which also broke launch records, became the 45th Wii title to sell more than 1 million units in the United States.
Nintendo sold more than 12 million total hardware units in the United States in 2011, marking the fifth year in a row that the company has accomplished that feat. This includes more than 4.5 million units of Wii, more than 4 million Nintendo 3DS systems, and more than 3.4 million units of the Nintendo DS family of systems. This brings the installed base for Wii and Nintendo DS to 39 million and more than 51 million, respectively.
Nintendo's 2012 3DS lineup includes new installments in the Mario Party, Pokémon and Kid Icarus franchises, as well as third-party games such as Resident Evil Revelations and METAL GEAR SOLID 3D Snake Eater.
In addition to the milestones reached by new software, two evergreen Nintendo titles also celebrated milestones in 2011. Mario Kart Wii passed 11 million units sold and New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS crossed 10 million total units sold.
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