According to Gamefront.de Nintendo´s DS shipments in Japan passed 20 million units during the last week. (Maybe it was mentioned in the financial statement, too but that´s when I started to wonder.)

According to vgchartz.com the Japanese LTD sales of Nintendos DS are 19.86 millon units.

If that´s true there are only 140k units left in stock which is a sell-through of 98.4% indicating there is still tight supply for the DS.

Is the DS still sold out in Japan? This doesn´t seem to be possible. Are 140k units of national stock enough to have the console available in every store? I don´t think so, too.

Unfortunately, gamefront doesn´t provide a source for it´s news but that´s what they generally do.

people still line up outside stores to get DS in Japan (i think...i remember someone saying something similar)

i will update this in a bit because i am about to check the financial staement...that will show Japanese DS shipments i think.

ok, Nintendos financial statement (http://press.nintendo.com/docs/corporate/SemiAnnual0709.pdf) shows 19.71 million shipments (retail sales) as of September 30th.
VGC forweek endin October 1st has 19.61 million....100k behind, which to mee seems reasonable because Nintendo will not have been shipping many during this slow patch, so near the end of September the sales caught up with the shipments (100k for Japan is not that unbelieveable....say average of 3 or 4 DSs in each store that sells them (5ish in gaming shops, 1 or 2 in electronics) seems normal, i mean it's not like there are 100,000 DS selling shops in Japan...at least i doubt it.

Anyhoo, as of now VGC has DS at 19.86 million, and shipments have probably recently increased (nintendo seems to increase shipments when each new quarter starts) there have probably been 20.1 million shipped.

Is the ds really that popular in japan?

@Soriku

I wonder why?

They should make SUPER SMASH BROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

^ yes they should 8{D

Why do you think they keep announcing increased production? Why was it sold out in the US last Christmas? Why can't I go to my local store and pick out whatever color/bundle I want? Tight supply. About 3-4 weeks worth which is exactly what this websites says. And I haven't even been to Japan.

It's interesting that right now weekly DS sales are far higher in the US and Europe right now than in Japan. In Europe in particular sales have been insane. There's no question that the DS will be far and away the best selling video game hardware this holiday season.

Nintendo Semi-annual Financial Results Briefing (Streaming / Text)
http://www.irwebcasting.com/071026/30/index.html

Inhabitants: About 130 million inhabitants
Sold DS: About 20 million
Attach rate: Insane (15.4%)