April NPD: Nintendo stays stoical on giant sales

Despite destroying the competition in the hardware stakes last month in the US, Nintendo issued another measured statement on last night's NPD figures, simply stating the facts. There's no need to spin when you're this far ahead, frankly.

“Wii sales were buoyed in part by the strong launch of Mario Kart Wii, which sold more than 1.1 million units,” said NoA's Cammie Dunaway.

“Our belief in appealing to a broad, diverse audience of players continues to resonate with consumers, and we look forward to continuing our outreach to an expanded audience with the launch of Wii Fit next week.”

Press release after the break.

Nintendo’s Wii Sits Atop April U.S. Sales

Wii™ emerged as the top-selling console in April, according to the independent NPD Group, which tracks U.S. video game sales. Wii sold more than 714,000 units in April alone, bringing its lifetime sales in the United States to more than 9.5 million.

“Wii sales were buoyed in part by the strong launch of Mario Kart Wii, which sold more than 1.1 million units,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Our belief in appealing to a broad, diverse audience of players continues to resonate with consumers, and we look forward to continuing our outreach to an expanded audience with the launch of Wii Fit next week.”

Other Nintendo highlights from April’s NPD report include:

* Mario Kart® Wii finished as the No. 2 game of the month.
* Six of the top 10 games of the month are for Nintendo systems: Mario Kart Wii (No. 2), Wii Play™ (No. 4), Super Smash Bros.® Brawl (No. 5), Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (No. 7), Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (No. 8) and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (No. 9).
* Super Smash Bros. Brawl crossed the 3 million sales mark in the United States.
* Wii and Nintendo DS™ again finished as the two top-selling hardware systems.

For more information about Nintendo, please visit www.Nintendo.com