IGN's Nintendo Minute recently posed a question to Nintendo VP of corporate affairs Denise Kaigler about sales of the DSi. IGN was under the impression that the handheld had a slow start, but Kaigler was quick to lay the smack down. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to strongly disagree with your premise," she said, pointing to NPD figures that show the DSi's first three months in the US moved more units than the original DS Phat, DS Lite and Wii did in the same period of time.
During its initial three months of availability, the DSi has unloaded more than 1.7 million units onto consumers. Compare that to the figures for the first three months of the DS Phat (1.38 million) and the DS Lite (1.07 million) and it's pretty clear who the winner is. Despite the fact that the DSi ($169.99) is more expensive than the DS Phat ($149.99) and DS Lite ($129.99) when they launched, consumers have been in favor of the Facebook-compatible handheld.
The DSi even managed to best Nintendo's money-printing Wii in its first three months gracing store shelves, as the Wii debuted with 1.52 million units sold. As impressive as that may be, we're pretty sure had launch supplies been greater, the Wii would've easily trumped the DSi's figures.