How Many Nintendo DS Units Have Been Sold?

The Nintendo DS first arrived in the gaming community in 2004, a mere three years after the launch of Nintendo’s previous handheld, the Game Boy Advance. With its massive success as a console, you may wonder how many Nintendo DS units have been sold.

Nintendo DS final Sales Figures explained

The total sales figures at this time for the Nintendo DS stand at around 154.02 million units in total. This appears to be the final units sold figure for the beloved and highly popular handheld system, as it came out nearly two decades ago at the time of writing. That is an unbelievable amount of DS units across the original, the DS Lite, DSi, XL, and other versions. (Thanks, Statista!)

How the DS compares to other Consoles and Handhelds

Some may wonder how the final Nintendo DS units compare to the other consoles and handhelds in the gaming industry. Well, the Nintendo DS is the second-highest-selling gaming platform of all time. It sits just behind Sony’s PS2 in first place with only about a million more units sold.

The Nintendo DS is far and away the greatest success in Nintendo’s lengthy history in the industry, partly due to excellent games like Ghost Trick. It became a worldwide phenomenon nearly overnight and never slowed down much until its discontinuation. It is not only the highest-selling Nintendo handheld but also the best-selling portable gaming device in the industry’s history.

The only Nintendo platform with a chance of coming close to the Nintendo DS’ success is the Nintendo Switch. The hybrid handheld and home console platform sits behind the DS by about 20 million units. Only time will tell if the global phenomenon, the Nintendo DS, will fall short of its more powerful and versatile sibling in the end.