Nintendo DS Still Outselling 3DS Two To One

It’s probably too much to expect that a more expensive new handheld would immediately unseat its predecessor, but I doubt Nintendo is too happy that consumers are buying more than twice as many DSes as 3DSes. At the same time, selling over half a million handhelds in a month isn’t exactly bad news either.

According to a Nintendo press release:

Nintendo sold more than 800,000 combined hardware units in June. This includes 386,000 units of the Nintendo DS™ family of systems, 273,000 Wii™ systems and 143,000 Nintendo 3DS systems. Each product line saw double-digit growth over the previous month, and the lifetime U.S. installed base for the Wii system crossed 36 million units.

Good for them! The fact is that while the 3DS is a compelling system, its cost and the lack of killer games for it mean that uptake is bound to be on the slow side — compared to the DS, which has a library of megahits stretching back years.

That said, Ocarina of Time 3D is actually quite a blockbuster despite the small user base:

After less than two weeks on store shelves, The Legend of Zelda™: Ocarina of Time™ 3D for the Nintendo 3DS™ portable entertainment system finished the month as the No. 2 best-selling video game on an individual platform, with more than 283,000 units sold, according to the independent NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States.

A slightly confusing way of saying that it’s the second-best selling game that’s only available on one system. #1? InFamous 2 for the PS3, believe it or not.