By Kris Pigna, 01/04/2011

Nintendo has announced that as of the end of 2010, the Wii has sold over 34 million units in the U.S., and the DS "family" (that is, everything including the original DS model up to the DSi) has sold over 47 million units -- making it the nation's biggest-selling gaming device ever.

The next best-selling console would be the PlayStation 2, although the most recent numbers we have for comparison come from 2008, when Sony declared the PS2 topped 50 million units sold in all of North America. There's no breakdown of how many units were sold in the U.S. specifically (nor do we know how many more may have been sold in the last couple of years), so we'll just have to take Nintendo's word for it that all DS models combined have surpassed it for the top spot.

As for the Wii, Nintendo proudly declared 2010 was the third year in a row that it sold "more than 7 million units" in the U.S. They didn't say exactly how many units it sold, and indeed, Nintendo seems to be using this specific metric to gloss over the fact that 2010 may also be the third year in a row of declining Wii sales -- the console topped 10 million in 2008, and 9.5 million in 2009.

Still, Nintendo also points out that this is the first time a videogame console has ever sold more than 7 million units three years in a row, so even if 2010 was another year of declining sales, it still seems to be an achievement worth gloating about.

"When we look back at 2010, we see consumers time and again turning to the value and enjoyment of our products," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime in a statement. "When we look ahead to 2011, we see new portable technology and more great Wii games that need to be seen to be believed."

Fils-Aime also recently said that Nintendo wants to reach 45 million Wiis sold on the U.S. before they'll be ready to start "talking next-gen." So if they stick to that goal, and if Wii sales continue to decline as they seemingly have the last three years, then we can posit we'll start hearing about a Wii successor by sometime in 2012 (which is when sales will likely hit the 45 million mark).

Of course there's nothing saying Nintendo will stick to that goal as far as their plans for a Wii successor go, so this is kind of meaningless speculation. But still, aren't numbers fun?