North American sales of Nintendo’s DSi are outpacing those achieved by older DS models and the Wii after three months on the market.

Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America’s vice president of corporate affairs, confirmed the system’s strong early performance in the US marketplace after taking exception to suggestions that the handheld had made a slow start out of the gate.

“Sorry, but I'm going to have to strongly disagree with your premise,” she told IGN. “In just three months, Nintendo DSi has sold more than 1.7 million in the United States alone, according to the NPD Group. I wouldn't call that slow at all.

“After three months, the original Nintendo DS had sold nearly 1.38 million and Nintendo DS Lite had sold more than 1.07 million,” she added. “Even the Wii console had sold only about 1.52 million after three months. So Nintendo DSi is beating them all.”

The DSi launched in Japan on November 1 last year and in other territories this April. Nintendo's latest quarterly financial report, which was released in late July, revealed that global DSi sales had hit 6.68 million units life-to-date.