3DS is fastest console to reach 5 million sales in Japan

Nintendo has announced that it's shipped 5 million 3DS units in Japan, earning the device the title of fastest-selling console in the country's history.

While the handheld's popular predecessor, the Nintendo DS, took 56 weeks to reach the landmark sales figure, the 3DS managed it in an impressively speedy 52 weeks.

Despite respectable sales during its launch period this time last year, Ninty's newest handheld seemed to be struggling by the summer. So much so, in fact, that Nintendo cut the unit's price by 40 per cent worldwide in an effort to shift units.

However, platform-selling titles like Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land helped to revive interest in Nintendo's three-dimensional gizmo, making it the fastest-selling console in Australia, and leading to reports of Christmas stock shortages in the UK.

The console was last recorded outselling its main rival, Sony's PS Vita, at the rate of five to one.