According to VG Charts info the DS has sold almost 20 million in Japan, Japan's population is about 127 million. So that means that 16% or almost 1/6 of Japenese people own a DS.

Compare that to the US with a population of about 300 million and only 15 million DS sold. That is only about 5% or 1/20 people who have bought a DS in the US.

If the US was as crazy about the DS as Japan then it would have sold roughly 48 million by now. So yes, Japan is crazy over the DS.

What do you guys think of the sale numbers?

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This is a pointless topic and one that has been talked about for a while.
No need for a new thread about it...............

Could you sum up all the salient points from the other threads, just to refresh our memories?

alexie, their was no need for that...

@Alexie Di something

Where else was it talked about?

Japan seems to be becoming the nation of the handheld. The "training" games are a real big deal there. Kanji training, English training, quiz/trivia games, classical music games, art appreciation games, the list is enormous and extensive. There really is something to appeal to anybody. Once the DS caught on it was the thing to have. That's Japan. I've lived there and was there this summer and the DS craze is as big as anything I've seen. Nintendo and the third parties have been publishing tons of titles, not just games but lots of training programs, to take advantage of the huge userbase and it has been paying off. The momentum for the DS has cooled off a bit since the big Pokemon push this summer but the DS is going to keep selling like crazy for a number of years and I'm really curious as to when Nintendo is going to come out with a successor.

America hasn't seen the "training" title deluge like Japan. I suspect this has to do with NOA's observation (true or not) that those types of titles wouldn't do as well in NA. There are titles like Spanish and French Language trainers coming out this year and it will be interesting to see how much of a market there is for them. The market for the DS in America still has a huge untapped potential and userbase that Nintendo is trying to reach. The "Brain Age" titles have so far shown that the NA market is not as receptive to these titles. I put some of that down to marketing, but also, it may be that the games aren't designed for optimal acceptance in the NA market. The DS has already captured all of the "core gamer" market that there is to get. Anyone claiming to be a "core gamer" that doesn't own a DS is a fraud. The challenge for Nintendo and NOA is how to transform the DS into a "must have" entertainment, educational or application appliance like the iPod, PC, Personal Organizer or cell phone.

The gaming community as a whole is bigger in Japan percentage wise....PS2 has sold roughly almost double in the North Americas but with three times the population. (inc Canada)

Admitedly the DS has taken a similar hold to the original Gameboy in Japan, wheras in America it hasn't quite managed that. (original GB in America was almost as ppular as the PS2 has been)

The reason America hasn't been so easily achieved in such high numbers are 2 reasons. For one this seems to be the one market where PSP isn't having tremendously bad sales. I mean PSP is doing alright there. And secondly the GBA is still not doing bad in America. In Japan and Europe/Other the GBA is dead. In America it almost outsells the PS3 in some months. If GBA were dead we could probably add an extra 40k a month to DS's sales and a similar addition during holidays.

Other than that DS is still doing quite amazing. Selling on pace worldwide with it's predecessor and PS2.

There's a problem with NOA, that's the deal.
It's obvious, because the DS is the sole case where north america is the poorest market of the big three.
In nearly all other cases, NA is the biggest market of the big three, except in the DS case.
I don't know what they did wrong (though I suspect that's the marketing part), but the GBA still selling is a poor excuse.
I always wondered why we european got a commercial with Nicole Kidman, and not the USA.