Nintendo announced that the 3DS is outselling the first-year numbers of its previous best-selling handheld, the Nintendo DS. The DS had sold only 2.3 million units in its first year, underselling the glasses-free 3D device by 4 million dollars in software purchases.

Mind you, the classic DS had no download service on which to purchase games (and there was no radical price drop within the first year of manufacture for the classic DS either), but sales of hardware and software for the 3DS has totaled over (US) $1.2 billion.

These sound like spectacular numbers, but the classic DS didn’t have to compete against the iPad, iPod touch, or the PSVita…will the 3DS continue to set sales records?