It’s obvious that Mario and Zelda games are popular, and everyone knows that Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. So hearing that the two get along so well, is not really that interesting…
All right, it is a little more interesting when you get into the specifics: Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told USA Today that “Super Mario 3D Land has become the fastest-selling portable Mario game ever,” moving over half a million copies since its November 13 launch. 3DS system sales have spiked, as well. According to info provided by Nintendo, system sales are up 325% for the week of November 20 over the previous week, and sales that week were up 49% over the week of November 6. Reggie also told USA Today that the surge in 3DS interest allowed the system to cross the DS’s first-year sales threshold (2.37 million units) in eight months.
In crazier news, the Wii had its best Black Friday ever, with Nintendo reporting over 500,000 systems sold just on Black Friday, including early store openings the night before. The combination of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword — which is itself the fastest-selling Zelda in history, at 535,000 copies — and rock-bottom prices helped propel the system to its record-breaking feat.
Nintendo, still printing out money,