Nintendo Reports Big Numbers: $996M Profit in Q1, Nearly 30 Million Wii and 78 Million DS Units Sold

On the strength of Wii sales, Nintendo's first quarter profit increased 34% compared to a year ago, the company announced today.The April - June period was good for a $996 million profit on revenues of $3.9 billion. Nintendo shifted 5.2 million Wii units, along with 3.42 million copies of Wii Fit and 6.42 million copies of Mario Kart Wii during the quarter. Taking these figures into account, total worldwide Wii sales are now at 29.6 million. Sony recently announced it sold 1.56 million PlayStation 3 consoles during the same period, while Microsoft shipped 1.3 million Xbox 360s.

Compared to the same period a year ago, sales of the Nintendo DS dipped by forty thousand units. It still sold 6.94 million units, and worldwide sales of the handheld are now at 77.54 million. For the entire fiscal year, which runs until March 2009, Nintendo expects to earn $3 billion on revenues of $16.8 billion.