Demand for ‘new generation’ consoles DS and Wii is at full throttle, pushing Nintendo’s profits beyond expectation for its half-year financials.

Yes, numbers, but to give you some idea of how many DS and Wii consoles are flying through the tills we thought this would be of interest. Nintendo has announced its financial results for the half year ending 30 September, which show an increase in sales of 132.5 per cent, pushing profit up 143.7 per cent year on year.

Nintendo has shifted 13.35 million DS consoles and 7.33 million Wiis this past six months. No surprises in terms of the biggest games, Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl together accounted for almost seven million units. Mario Party 8 did well too, despite some negative reviews, with almost three million copies sold.

This isn’t just a Japanese success story either as 78 per cent of total sales happened ‘overseas’. In fact Europe took the biggest slice of the cake, bringing in revenues of US $210 million, ahead of $131 for America and $146 in Japan.

So we guess the saying that applies to all things quirky but popular must now change to ‘Big in Europe’.