Massive sales for the month of April see Nintendo miles ahead in the hardware and software charts...

Here follow figures that will make any Nintendo fan's heart glow with happiness. Three years ago, with the GameCube languishing in last place pretty much everywhere, would anyone predict Nintendo's current renaissance?

With DS Lite sales dominating all other handheld and console figures (not to mention more than double that of the PSP) and Wii sales around four times that of the PS3, Nintendo must be doing something right. Backing this up is the fact that the top four software titles for the month of April all came from Nintendo's stable. The incredible figures follow:

US April Hardware Chart

• 1. Nintendo DS - 471,000
• 2. Wii - 360,000
• 3. PlayStation 2 - 194,000
• 4. PlayStation Portable - 183,000
• 5. Xbox 360 - 174,000
• 6. Game Boy Advance - 84,000
• 7. PlayStation 3 - 82,000
• 8. GameCube - 13,000

US April Software Chart

• 1. Pokémon Diamond (NDS, Nintendo) - 1,045,000
• 2. Pokémon Pearl (NDS, Nintendo) - 712,000
• 3. Super Paper Mario (Wii, Nintendo) - 352,000
• 4. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo) - 249,000
• 5. Guitar Hero II (360, Activision) - 197,000
• 6. Guitar Hero II (PS2, Activision) - 142,000
• 7. Spider-man 3 (360, Activision) - 117,000
• 8. Spider-man 3 (PS2, Activision) - 105,000
• 9. God of War II (PS2, Sony) - 101,000
• 10. MLB '07: The Show (PS2, Sony) - 79,000

And an important note: the 1.7 million units of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl were clocked up in just one week of sales. Expect further massive sales in next month's figures - which will also see the release of Pokémon Battle Revolution for Wii.