Once upon a time, Sony's PlayStation 2 held the lofty position of America's best-selling game platform. With over 41 million consoles sold, it seemed the PS2 held a nearly unreachable position as the be-all and end-all of modern gaming success. But that's why they say "nearly" for things like this. Nintendo announced today that, in the wake of strong holiday sales, their DS has become the new king of the mountain. With the 2010 numbers finally tallied, the total number of DSes in American is over 47 million, surpassing the PS2 by at least 5 million units.

But the good news for the House of Mario doesn't stop there, oh no. The press release also announced that for the third consecutive calendar year, the Wii's sales topped 7 million units sold, bringing the total number of Wiis in the US to over 34 million. According to Nintendo, this is the first time in gaming history that that milestone has been achieved by one console. I guess recent rumors of the Wii's demise were rather exaggerated.

Clearly Nintendo is having a good run of late, which bodes well for the upcoming 3DS. While many in the so-called "hardcore" gaming community continue to scoff at Nintendo's unwillingness to adopt a more current gen attitude (i.e. HD graphics, better friends' system, etc.), Nintendo continues to laugh right back at them, all the way to the bank. While I don't anticipate that the 3DS will reach these kinds of sales figures, the fact is that Nintendo is clearly doing something right.