Nintendo DS sales topped five million in March

Worldwide sales of the Nintendo DS handheld shot through the five million mark in mid-March, putting the company well within its five to six million unit target for the full year to March 31st according to the latest figures from Nintendo of America.

The clarification of the global sales figures came after Nintendo UK caused some confusion yesterday with a press release which celebrated 200,000 sales of the console in the UK, but incorrectly stated the global sales figure as "over 3 million units".

Nintendo of America was quick to correct the error, pointing out that global sales actually passed the five million mark in mid-March - just after the European launch - and telling US website GameSpot that the firm is "on track" to meet its previous predictions of five to six million units sold through March.

That assertion is backed up by independent market research figures from bodies such as NPD (in the USA) and Media Create (in Japan), which agree that the DS passed the three million mark several months ago, and was closer to five million units than three even before the European launch in mid-March.

By contrast, the PlayStation Portable - which won't launch in Europe until September 1st, a full five months after its North American debut - had sold somewhere over 2.5 million units worldwide by the end of March, missing Sony's target of three million units by its financial year-end and placing global sales of the device at around half of what Nintendo's handheld has sold.