3DS Surpasses Dreamcast in Total Software Sales
During the week ending December 29, 2012, the Nintendo 3DS sold over 1.8 million units of software globally, propelling it from 64.2 million to 66.0 million total software sales. This exceeds the Sega Dreamcast's lifetime software sales of 64.89 million units.
Who's buying all those games? The 3DS can thank Japan for over 24 million -- about 37% -- of its software sales. North America accounts for over 22 million, or about 34% of 3DS software sales. Europeans have purchased just under 14 million 3DS games, about 21% of the total.
By comparison, over 50% of the Dreamcast's total software sales were in North America, where almost 35 million games were sold. However, the console had a much weaker showing than the 3DS in Japan, selling just over 15 million games in that region.
At this point in its life, 96 weeks after launch, the Nintendo DS had racked up 70.59 million software sales: 19.7 million in North America, 9.3 million in Europe, and 38.1 million in Japan. Although the 3DS is tracking slightly under its predecessor in total software sales at retail, it should be noted that untracked digital sales on 3DS likely even the odds.
