According to Michael Pachter of Wedbush, sales of the Nintendo 3DS may have reached 500,000 for the month of March. This makes the Nintendo 3DS the best gaming console in terms of sales last month with the Xbox 360 of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) placing second with 480,000 units and Wii on third place with 410,000 units.
Pachter also indicated that the PlayStation 3 of Sony (NYSE:SNE) sold around 380,000 units. NPD, a research company, will make the actual figures on the sales of the devices including the Nintendo 3DS within the week.
If Pachter’s figures are accurate, it would indicate that the Nintendo Wii sales have decline by 26 percent compared to last year while the Xbox 360 sales and PlayStation 3 would increase by 42 percent and 21 percent respectively if the figures are accurate.
The sales of the Nintendo 3DS is considered extraordinary for a mobile gaming console. The Nintendo 3DS gives users a glass-free 3D gaming experience. Even as the US market saw the arrival of the Nintendo 3DS on March 27, it was able to surpass the sales of the other gaming consoles in just five games.
According to the company, the sales figures for the Nintendo 3DS on the day it was introduced was the highest among all of its mobile gaming consoles. The sell-out of the Nintendo 3DS in March did not surprise some analysts following its sell-out in Japan where it was first launched.
The sales of the Nintendo 3DS was a major contributor to the increase in hardware sales in the industry last March. Pachter indicated that sales may have increase by six percent for the month with around 2.275 million devices sold, with a sizeable number coming from the Nintendo 3DS sales.
