Nintendo has shifted nearly 30m Wii consoles worldwide since releasing the unit in late 2006, the videogame giant’s Q1 financial results have revealed.

For the three months ended 30 June 2008, Nintendo sold 5.1m Wii consoles worldwide – up from 3.4m units in the same period last year. In total, the firm's now sold 29.7m Wii units.

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Nintendo as a whole raked in a net profit of ¥107.2bn during the first quarter period, an increase of 34 per cent on last year’s figures. Total sales for Q1 topped ¥423.3bn, up 24 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, the company also sold bucket-loads of videogames too. Mario Kart sold 6.42m copies worldwide, and 3.42m copies of Wii Fit were shifted.

Nintendo’s rising console and videogame sales are in keeping with other gaming industry rivals. Yesterday Sony announced that during its first quarter, the three months ended June 2008, it sold 1.56m PlayStation 3 consoles – up from 700,000 units in the same period last year.