DS tops hardware sales ranking in America for June

Nintendo of America is trumpeting the success of the DS handheld in the United States, where the platform was the top-selling game system in June by a huge margin thanks to the launch of DS Lite.

Between the old and new revisions of the hardware, the DS sold some 600,000 units in June - almost double the sales of the next hardware platform on the list, and representing more than a third of total system purchases, Nintendo claims.

Perhaps more impressively, software on the system is also showing strong performance - with New Super Mario Bros topping the US chart for a second month with sales of an additional 450,000 units, a performance which rivals the title's stellar sales in Japan.

The firm's two brain training products, Brain Age and Big Brain Academy, sold 350,000 units between them - while the Nintendogs games, despite being launched ten months ago, still managed to sell a combined 100,000 units in June.

One of the key drivers for the success of the DS in Japan and, to some extent, in other territories, has been the longevity of its software - with titles such as Brain Age continuing to sell strongly over a year after their introduction in the Far East.

Nintendo also took the opportunity to talk up the success of the Wi-Fi Connection service, which was rolled out late last year and will be shared by the Nintendo Wii console when it launches in autumn.

Over 1.7 million discreet users have now used the service worldwide, giving Wi-Fi Connection the fastest adoption rate of any game network ever launched - with the firm hoping for further growth in coming months with the launch of new WFC-enabled games such as Star Fox Command, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, and Clubhouse Games.