Nintendo DS
- Manufacturer
- Nintendo
- Production
- 2004–2014
- Generation
- Gen 7
- Type
- Handheld
- Launch price
- $149
- Media
- Flash
- Units sold
- 154.0M
About Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS is a foldable handheld game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide between 2004 and 2005. The "DS" in the name is an initialism for "Dual Screen", reflecting the system's most distinctive feature: two LCD screens working in tandem, with the lower screen functioning as a touchscreen. Both screens are housed in a clamshell design similar to that of the Game Boy Advance SP and some models of the Game & Watch series. The DS was among the first portable consoles to support wireless connectivity for local multiplayer over short distances, as well as online play through the now-defunct Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. Its primary competitor during the seventh generation of video game consoles was Sony's PlayStation Portable.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Lifetime sales
Official manufacturer-reported figures.
154.0Munits
948.8Mgames
6.2games / console
Worldwide Nintendo DS family (incl. DS Lite, DSi).
Source: Nintendo Co., Ltd. IR — Dedicated Video Game Sales Units, as of June 30, 2026.
Library & collector facts
1,879licensed games
- North America: 1,014
- Japan: 1,100
- PAL: 1,080
Lineage
Release timeline
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- December 2, 2004
- 🇺🇸 North America
- November 21, 2004
- 🇪🇺 Europe / PAL
- March 11, 2005
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- February 24, 2005
- Lifespan
- 10 years on market
Pricing
Launch price (2004)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $149
- 🇬🇧 GBP
- £99
Launch titles & exclusives
Super Mario 64 DS · Madden NFL 2005 · Asphalt: Urban GT · Feel the Magic: XY/XX · Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits · Ping Pals · Polarium · The Urbz: Sims in the City · Spider-Man 2
None standard; some bundles included Nintendogs (DS Lite era)
Mario Kart DS · New Super Mario Bros. · Nintendogs · Brain Age · Animal Crossing: Wild World · Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver/Black/White · The World Ends With You · Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow / Portrait of Ruin / Order of Ecclesia · Advance Wars: Dual Strike / Days of Ruin · Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time / Bowser's Inside Story · Phoenix Wright series · Professor Layton series · Ghost Trick · Dragon Quest IX · Etrian Odyssey series · 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Big Hero 6: Battle in the Bay (2014, NA) was among the very last releases
Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (~$200+ CIB); Commando: Steel Disaster sealed; Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver with Pokewalker CIB (~$200+); Nintendo World Championships demo carts
Variants of Nintendo DS
Hardware specs
- Cpu
- 67 MHz ARM946E-S, 33 MHz ARM7TDMI
- Ram
- 4 MB RAM
- Weight
- 275 g
- Dimensions
- 148.7 × 84.7 × 28.9 mm
- Display Output
- Two 3" TFT LCDs, 256 × 192 pixels
- Storage Internal
- Cartridge save, 256 MB flash memory
Hardware revisions
- Original DS NTR-001(2004)
the 'phat' DS, GBA slot, lower-quality screens, removable stylus
- DS Lite USG-001(2006)
brighter screens, smaller form factor, retained GBA slot — the platform's mainstream best-seller
- DSi TWL-001(2008)
cameras, SD slot, DSi Shop, GBA slot removed, region-locked (DSi-enhanced and DSi-exclusive titles)
- DSi XL UTL-001(2009)
larger 4.2" screens, marketed at older audiences
Launch colorways & special editions
- Pokemon Center JP variants
- Mario Kart Edition
- Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Limited
- Final Fantasy III Edition
- Zelda Phantom Hourglass Gold (JP)
- Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver Limited
- Crimson/Black Mario 25th Anniversary DSi XL
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- soft-mod
- Custom firmware
- R4 / Acekard / SuperCard DSTwo (flashcards); Unlaunch (DSi softmod)
Reception & legacy
Phenomenal — launched alongside PSP and surprised analysts with massive sales despite the PSP's more powerful hardware
R4 flashcard piracy spawned lawsuits worldwide (R4 banned in JP, UK courts); DSi region lock annoyed enthusiasts after DS/DS Lite were region-free
Second best-selling video game console of all time (~154M); dual-screen + touch + microphone created entirely new game-design vocabularies; pulled Nintendo back into handheld dominance during a generation where Sony's PSP threatened seriously
References
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Nintendo DS in the news
Recent coverage mentioning the Nintendo DS, gathered from 80+ gaming-news sources.
Feature: 5 Things A Short Trip Taught Me About Nintendo's Smallest Game Boy
Micro but mighty? I recently took a trip with my family down to London, and, given that we were intentionally travelling super-light, I decided to take the smallest portable console in my arsenal: the Game Boy Micro. Released around the same time as the Nintendo DS, the Micro was billed as the...
10 Nintendo DS Metroidvanias That Respect Your Time
If you're a fan of handheld Metroidvanias, then you'll want to check out this batch of them on the Nintendo DS system.
Dragon Quest creator explains why Dragon Quest 9 was a Nintendo DS exclusive
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was a surprising game especially since it was made an exclusive for the popular Nintendo DS system. Yuji Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest franchise, recently sat down with Famitsu to talk about why he decided that the Nintendo DS was the perfect...
Dragon Quest 9 has been trapped on the Nintendo DS for 17 years, and franchise creator Yuji Horii was "a little disheartened" to learn fans never wanted that
Free Dragon Quest 9
MiSTer News – Nintendo DS, Mac LC, Rainbow Islands, HiFi System & More
AO486 NE2000 A user on the MiSter FPGA forums has posted an alternate AO486 core that supports an NE2000 network card. This enables operating systems to use NE2000 network drivers and communicate through the ethernet port rather than PPP/Serial. Sources https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=111343...
Dragon Quest creator comments on why DQ9 was a Nintendo DS exclusive, team was “a little disheartened” by the fan reaction
Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest 9, recently reflected on the decision to make the game exclusive to Nintendo DS. Before that RPG, new mainline entries were known for debuting on home consoles. On top of that, Square Enix was coming off of Dragon Quest 8 on PlayStation 2, which was the first...