Just under a year after it went on sale, Nintendo's "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" has become the first Wii software title to sell 4 million copies in Japan, a market data provider said Tuesday.
Sales of the popular title reached 4,001,276 copies in the week ending Nov. 28, according to Enterbrain, which collects point-of-sales system data from thousands of retailers across Japan.
Nintendo has sold 10.8 million Wii consoles in Japan, so the game has been bought by more than one in three Wii console owners in Japan.
The game went on sale on Dec. 3, 2009, and its fast ascent to the top of the Wii sales chart is testament to the popularity of the Mario Bros. franchise in Japan. The game first appeared in Japanese arcades in 1983 and appeared on the Super NES system in 1985. In the years since it has sold millions of copies both in Japan and around the world.
Nintendo is pushing the 25th anniversary of the game's appearance on home consoles with a series of promotional items including a Mario-anniversary version of the DSi XL handheld and a red Wii console.
Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is [email protected]
