Eurogamer

Nintendo has announced a new worldwide 3DS sales total of 6.68 million units.

That figure covers sales from 3DS launch up to 30th September, as revealed today in Nintendo's half-year financial report.

That means 3DS sales are comparable to DS sales within a similar timeframe - the 3DS is even marginally in front.

The 3DS launched in Japan in February, seven months ago. The 3DS arrived in Europe and the US roughly a month later.

Seven months after the DS launch, Nintendo had shifted 6.65 million units. But the global roll-out took longer - November 2004 in the US, December 2004 in Japan and March 2005 in Europe.

Between April and June just 710,000 3DS were sold, although hardware sales sprung back to life this summer. A far healthier 2.36 million 3DS consoles were bought between July and September after the system's August price-drop.

Worldwide 3DS software sales topped 8.13 million during the period, with Ocarina of Time 3D surpassing the 1 million milestone. Life-to-date software sales have now hit 17.56 million.

The report lists the current DS hardware total is now a now-gargantuan 149 million, while the Wii sits atop 89.36 million units sold.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-10-27-3ds-worldwide-sales-total-6-68-million

A good amount of the hardcore have bough it I think. That plus the price cut make this good, but not great. It'll be interesting to watch from now on. The games are coming, so things are looking okay.

VGChatz undertracked the 3DS by nearly one million :O

well done

That is shipped not sold.

It's a good amount for now but how long will it last? If sales start to slump they don't have much room to cut the price unless they want to lose even more money.

Well the mariokart audience alone is ~21mil. Not counting the millions( tens of millions?) who pirated it, borrowed it or bought it second hand.

I don't think ~140mil out of the ~149mil ds owners were casual lol.

if i'm not mistaken, DS launched months later in other regions, so it's unfair to say that 3DS is doing better considering most of the DS sold at the time was Japan only?

Gonna be an interesting holiday for the 3DS. This may shape up its future especially in the west. Personally i think it will pull through, but it needs big numbers. It will have a DS-esque Christmas in Japan that's for sure!

And that's the more important part.  With the DS, Nintendo was making money from each sale.  Now, Nintendo is losing money from each sale of the 3DS.  Then we have last month's NPD which revealed that, even with the large price cut, the 3DS was still not selling incredibly well, except for Japan.  I'm sure the holidays will give it a boost, but there is also the Vita's launch in Japan that may steal some of its thunder.