Week 41!
DS 06 -- 105,310
3DS 13 -- 229,058
With no major new releases this week, DS hardware sales fall to their Q4 low, nearly down to 100k. The 3DS manages to double that and then some thanks to the release of Pokemon X/Y this week to over 1.9 million retail sales.
On a somewhat unrelated note, this boost helped the 3DS overcome an important milestone: it is now tracking ahead of its own sales at this same point last year. This means that the 3DS is on-pace to exceed the roughly 5.5 million sales it achieved in Japan in 2012. That's nowhere near the DS's 8.4 million sales in 2006, but it represents an enormous accomplishment nonetheless.
Week 42 preview: DS sales recover to 118k next week with the release of Custom Robo Arena. 3DS sales will most likely stay well above that despite declining in its post-Pokemon week.
Now we see how the 3DS sells between X/Y's release and the true start of the Holiday season in a few weeks. Last year, it averaged about 70k through weeks 42-44, before the release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf propelled it to over 150k sales, which it sustained for the rest of the year. Over the next month, we'll see whether Pokemon X/Y's earlier release results in a sharper drop before November and overall lower sales that month, or a longer period of higher sales leading into December.
The tally thus far:
DS 06 -- 6,058,444
3DS 13 -- 3,475,138
Adv DS +2,583,306
