Nintendo’s NPD sales report has lots of numbers

Some actually look like good numbers

It doesn’t seem too long ago that Nintendo were struggling. With the slow sales of the Wii U that hit profits back in 2013 and the dwinding 3DS user base in 2014, It looked like the little (pfffft) company that could unfortunately just couldn’t.

But the newest North American sales statistics released by Nintendo suggest they may be on the rise again. And that’s ignoring sales of those bloody amiibo.

For the Wii U, total sales of the console have increased by more than 20% in the first 3 months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. Likewise for the 3DS, sales have grown by a massive 80%. I guess people really wanted a little rubber nub, who knew?

Nintendo also gave us some numbers for how some of their bigger releases recently have been doing. I’m no sales analyst, numbers scare and confuse me so I’ll just throw them at you and hope for the best:

• Super Smash Bros for the 3DS outsells its WiiU counterpart. With 2.4 million sales on the 3DS to 1.6 million on the Wii U total in the roughly 6 months since release. 
• Majora’s Mask 3D has hit a lifetime total of 730,000 sales. The vast majority of those were in the first month though, as since then it’s only pulled in 184,000 sales.
• Mario Party 10 has sold 290,000 in its first 2 weeks. Maybe fans just aren’t particularly receptive to it? Whoever knows, it’s not me.

As someone who hasn’t owned a Nintendo console since the original DS, I have to admit I’ve been tempted by their offerings with the New 3DS recently. This might be Nintendo managing the scrape themselves back in to being relevant. It’s a good thing too, I bet it’s the only way to stop Reggie Fils-Aime descending from the sky, blotting out the sun and flooding the world with the amiibo found inside his feathery plumage.