Nintendo says that the Wii U established new benchmarks for hardware and software sales in a single month in December, and helped total hardware and software sales to increase by more than 29 percent and more than 75 percent, respectively, compared to last year.
Nintendo 3DS also had a strong December, including its largest month ever for first-party software sales. This was primarily fueled by Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, which has already surpassed 2 million combined physical and digital units sold in a little more than three months, and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, which have combined to sell over 2.6 million physical and digital units in their first six weeks.
Nintendo also said it sold almost 2.6 million Amiibo figurines in the U.S. since they debuted in late November. The Kyoto-based company said that sales were "nearly twice" the 1.3 million copies of Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U sold last year in the U.S. Mario Kart 8 sold 1.7 million physical and digital units for the console, Nintendo said.
President Satoru Iwata is looking to vindicate his strategy of selling games only on Nintendo devices rather than offering them on smartphones and tablet computers.
Players can choose from more than 40 Amiibo toys to enter popular characters like Mario, Link and Donkey Kong into a Nintendo game through the Wii U’s GamePad tablet. The figurines retail for about $13, according to the company’s website.
In 2014, 16 Nintendo 3DS titles sold at least 250,000 units. Of those titles, eight sold more than 500,000 units and three sold over 1 million units.
Nintendo is looking to ride the wave of momentum into 2015, with the launches of Splatoon, Yoshi’s Woolly World, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and Mario Party 10. On Feb. 13, Nintendo will also launch the New Nintendo 3DS XL in the United States alongside The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D.