Mario Kart 7 sales hit 420,000 in first week since launch in Japan

The Nintendo 3DS didn’t exactly have a stellar launch period, due in no small part to the lack of first-party titles on the handheld. Nintendo scurried to address that, releasing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and, more recently, Super Mario 3D Land.

Mario Kart 7, another first-party title, also saw its debut on the handheld as well late last week, and traditionally Mario Kart titles have been massive sellers, with Mario Kart Wii going on to sell 28 million copies after its release, one million of which were sold within the first week in both Japan and the US. So how did Mario Kart 7 do?

Not quite as good, as it turns out, but still impressive. Andriasang reports that in the first week of release, Mario Kart 7 sold 420,000 copies in Japan alone. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata didn’t share sales data for international sales, but he did say that performance overseas has been impressive. Interestingly, he noted that Mario games have been doing somewhat better overseas than in Japan.

All things considered, especially Nintendo being forced to drop the price on the Nintendo 3DS shortly after release, the company has had overall good fiscal performance this year. Despite that, Iwata says that Nintendo is still projected to end the fiscal year at a loss, but he goes on to note that Nintendo expects profits to pick back up again in the next fiscal year.

via Andriasang