GBA hits 20m units in the USA

Nintendo has announced that the Game Boy Advance has now sold some 20 million units in the United States, significantly outstripping sales of previous Game Boy systems at a similar point in their lifespans.

The GBA was launched in North America in June 2001, which means that it's taken two and a half years for it to reach this major sales milestone - with a significant boost being provided by the launch of the SP model last March.

By way of comparison, at a similar point in the lifespan of the original Game Boy only 2.4 million units had been sold, while the Game Boy Colour had managed 14.3 million units at this point in its history.

According to Nintendo, it sold 8.1 million GBA consoles during 2003 - making it into the most successful year ever for the Game Boy product family, and certainly vindicating the company's decision to repackage the GBA in the sleeker and more "adult friendly" form of the GBA SP.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the latest GBA titles in the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon Leaf Green and Pokemon Fire Red, which are remakes of the original Game Boy games that started the whole series, had sold over a million units between them in their first weekend on sale in Japan.

The games are set to be launched in the USA and Europe later this year.