Japan: New 3DS sales stacking up favorably to the DSi

The New 3DS and DSi are very comparable products in their nature. Neither system is a true leap to the next generation of Nintendo handheld hardware, but both act as notable upgrades over their predecessors. Given how similar the New 3DS and DSi are – at least in their purpose – it’s interesting to see just how similarly the two systems have sold in Japan thus far.

The New 3DS and New 3DS XL have sold over 500,000 units in five weeks, according to sales tracker Media Create. As it turns out, this was the same case for DSi. That system released on November 1, 2008 and sold over 500,000 units in five weeks.

Annual sales of the DS series (2,492,000 units) on the week before the release of the DSi in 2008 were 42.93 percent under the previous year. Similarly, annual sales of the 3DS series (1,600,000 units) on the week before the release of the New 3DS and New 3DS XL were 49.55 percent under the previous year. This is an indication that both systems were released under similar situations.

Total DSi sales hit 1 million units in its eighth week (third week of December 2008), and ended up with 1,231,000 sales by the end of 2008. While the situation isn’t exactly the same because the timing of release is one month different than the DSi, Media Create believes that the New 3DS and New 3DS XL will likely sell 1.2 million by the end of 2014 thanks to the arrival of AAA titles.

There’s one other piece of notable information from Media Create as well. The New 3DS XL saw a 121.58 percent sales increase this week due to the release of the special Smash Bros. system, which moved 13,000 units. However, it did not make a major contribution to sales of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, as the game dropped from 29,000 copies last week to 25,000 copies this week.

Thanks to eigotaku for the tip.