Fire Emblem Awakening shifted 180,000 units across its debut month at North American retail, Nintendo of America tells us. In a statement sent to Joystiq, the company said the tactical 3DS RPG enjoyed best ever first month sales in the franchise's nearly 23-year history. No doubt that was helped by a strong eShop uptake of 63,000 units, which comes in at 35 percent of total sales.
Considering the series' last entry, Shadow Dragon, sold just over 250,000 units in North America to date, Awakening's sales bump over here is impressive, much as we thought the game was in our review. We awarded Awakening four and a half stars, deeming it "the best soap opera since CBS canceled Guiding Light," which is certainly saying something.