Using recent sales data from the NPD group, which recently revealed sales figures for North America in April, Nintendo sold roughly 2.1 million first party 3DS games between January and April 2013. This indicates a 52 percent rise in year-to-year sales sales for first-party games on the influential handheld.
Compared to the same quarterly period from 2012, the company managed to sell this many first party games within just 18 weeks, while it took roughly 30 weeks – or around 7 months, give or take a week – to sell the same in 2012. Obviously this indicates the console has risen in popularity.
This can also be attributed to some of the more critically acclaimed launches to happen this year, which includes Fire Emblem: Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, with Animal Crossing: New Leaf to follow. Brain Age: Concentration and LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins round out the remaining first party titles the company has put out.
Of course, in comparison, the company only put out two first party titles last year, namely Kid Icarus: Uprising and Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, developed by Tecmo-Koei.