Nintendo might have posted a series of financial results for the last nine months of 2011 that were below expectations and included losses, but the company was proud to announce that the much-maligned 3DS handheld was now the fastest selling product that the company has ever launched worldwide.

Satoru Iwata, the president and the chief executive officer at Nintendo, stated, “When we held our last Financial Results Briefing, the sales of the Nintendo 3DS had not accelerated worldwide; however, since last November, because strong titles were launched and the year-end sales season developed favorably the proliferation speed of the Nintendo 3DS accelerated around the world.”

In Japan the 3DS had a rough start, but towards the end of 2011 the sales accelerated rapidly and after surpassing the first year performance of the normal DS the 3DS has also managed to overtake the Game Boy Advance.

In Europe and in North America the company says that the 3DS push towards the top of the hardware charts was supported by the launch of Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7, two serious first party games that leveraged the power of well-known characters.

Sales in North America have gone past the 4 million units mark while in Europe the total is over 3.5 million.

Looking to the future, Iwata added, “I can say, however, that there will be more and more highly-anticipated titles for the Nintendo 3DS even in the U.S. and Europe where home console game systems lead the market.”

The executive believes that third-party developers are now more interested in developing for the Nintendo 3DS and that big video game announcements will be made in the coming months.

This year the Wii U home console is set to be launched and much of Nintendo’s energy will be dedicated to making that platform a success, which might mean somewhat less support for the 3DS.