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The launch of the 3DS XL is pivotal to the future fortunes of the Nintendo 3DS and early sales numbers for the handheld are encouraging.
Although Nintendo has not released concrete sales numbers for the UK, Games Industry reports that the machine sold a little shy of five figures” (as in 10,000) in its first chart week in the UK.
That means that it bettered sales of the original 3DS by around 2:1 last week.
Note that having been launched on a Saturday that figures are effectively day one numbers.
The story in Japan is arguably even better, with Famitsu reporting that 3DS XL sold 193,000 units in its first week.
CVG points out that by comparison, the DSi XL sold 100,000 units in its first two days at retail. Note, though, that machine arrived at a very different stage in the DS’ lifecycle and was the fourth – not the second – revision of the hardware.
UPDATE: MCV was contacted by ChartTrack to highlight an error in this story.
"The comparison with 3DS is complete rubbish and totally factually incorrect," a spokesperson said. "3DS week one was around 10 times the sell through of 3DS XL so there’s no way 3DS XL could have outsold 3DS by 2:1."
However, now the author of the original story has stated that the week one sales comparison was for that specific week, and not the launch week of the 3DS.
Apologies for the confusion. The story has been altered to reflect this change.
