Spin: Nintendo Numbers

Jan 22, 2004

Nintendo of America today issued a press release that spotlighted a number of its 2003 sales success stories. The company cited NPD Funworld data as the source of the following list:

Game Boy Advance was the best-selling system in 2003 with 8.1 million units sold
GameCube was the fastest-growing system in 2003 with 40% unit sales increase over the prior year (compared to a 25% decline for PS2 and flat sales of Xbox)
GameCube was the fastest-growing "game seller" in 2003 with a 77% increase over 2002
Nintendo was the number-one hit maker in 2003 with four of the year's top seven sellers; games included Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire for GBA; Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for GameCube
Number-one sales growth in 2003: corporate retail revenues increased 16% over 2002
And number-one landmark: Game Boy Advance sold its 20 millionth system in the US in 2003

Of course, some of these statements smell of Nintendo spin. For instance, while GameCube was the fastest-growing system in 2003, it still lagged well behind sales of PlayStation 2 (and in many months) Xbox. Still, there's no denying some of these successes. Both Zelda and Mario Kart sold phenomenally well and GameCube sales were indisputably up over the year prior.