Nintendo profits double, Wii sales hit 20m

Nintendo has announced that its profits doubled between March and December last year as sales of the Wii rose by 85 per cent.

The company sold 14.29 million Wii units during the period. Lifetime sales for the console now stand at more than 20 million worldwide, with 6 million of those sold in Europe.

Wii Play is the most popular software title for the machine in Europe, with 2.3 million units sold to date. Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess have both racked up sales of 1.3 million, while Mario Party 8 has topped 1 million.

The DS isn't doing too badly either, with 24.5 million handhelds sold in the last nine months. That brings the total number of handhelds shifted to 64.79 million.

That includes 20 million sold in Europe, where Nintendogs has been a big hit with 8 million copies sold. Brain Training and More Brain Training have done 5 million and 2.8 million respectively. More than 3 million copies of New Super Mario Bros. have been sold, while the figure for Mario Kart DS stands at 2 million.

For the nine months of last year, Nintendo's net income stood at JPY 258.93 billion (USD 2.43bn / EUR 1.66bn). The company expects to shift an additional 4 million Wii consoles and 5 million DS units by the end of March this year.