Nintendo says that one fifth of Japanese people own a DS.
While the number's not as high elsewhere, almost one in ten Americans now own a DS and almost one in seven Europeans do too, according to the company's chart, pictured here.
"In Japan, more than one in five people own a DS. On the other hand, in the US and in Europe, the sales have not yet reached to one in ten people yet," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said recently.
Factually speaking, that's not quite the case. While 26.1 million DS systems have been sold in Japan, which has a population of 127 million people, they weren't all sold to different individuals - many buyers will have purchased multiple systems over the years.
Nevertheless, the market penetration achieved by the DS is still mightily impressive. Not that Nintendo's satisfied just yet.
"Even in Japan where the DS ownership ratio to the population is very high, Nintendo DS sales are continuing, so it can be said that there is still ample room for penetration in the overseas markets," Iwata added.
Well you can't tell for any consoel but odds are more people have DSs than anything else. After all there are people who own all 3 PSP models and will get the PSP Go! when it's out and home consoles tend to be shared anyway.
It's been like that for ages, this isn't news. About a year ago I posted that it was up to about 1 person in 7, so it's hardly a shock. Sales divided by population.
Must be really good for finding random games of Mario Kart on a train though
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