NES Classic demand exceeded Nintendo’s expectations – that much was fairly clear from the fact that it has thus far been nearly impossible to get a system here in the States. The gaming company hasn’t released any specifics surrounding just how many units of the all-in-one emulator it managed to move, so we’ll have to rely on some new numbers coming out of NPD.
According to the industry tracking analyst group, Nintendo moved 196,000 units between the console’s launch on November 11 and the end of the month – a number that comes as year-over-year hardware spending dropped 35-percent. Of course, the retro system’s $60 price tag doesn’t leave nearly the same dent as full-fledge next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, both of which saw a decline.
Really, it was pretty solid news for Nintendo all around. The 3DS has seen six straight months of growth and Pokemon Sun and Moon are both selling at a healthy clip, all thanks in no small part to the wild success of Pokemon Go. Those titles nabbed the third and fourth slots on the list of best-selling games of the month, behind all of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1.
All in all, it’s shaping up to be a solid holiday season for the gaming giant, after some sputtering, particularly in light of the fact that the Nintendo Switch is still on the horizon. And yesterday’s release of Super Mario Run is sure to only add fuel to that fire.