The handheld manages to move more than 4 million units in the United States

Jan 4, 2012 19:01 GMT  ·  By

Video game hardware creator and game publisher Nintendo has announced that with 4 million units moved on the United States market during the whole of 2011 the 3DS handheld is now better performing, for a nine month period, than the Wii home console was on launch.

Despite the good sales performance, especially after the price cut that Nintendo implemented in August, the 3DS still has a long way to go before matching the overall sales of 39 million that the Wii has registered so far during its life time.

The entire DS line-up now stands at 51 million units sold since launch.

Nintendo has cited good sales and critical reception for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 as more reasons for the much improved performance that the 3DS has delivered during the last three months of 2011.

The recently launched PlayStation Vita handled from Sony, which was supposed to be the main rival to the 3DS, has failed to make an impression on the core Japanese market.