It’s been almost two years since Nintendo set loose the Wii upon the world, in hopes of starting a wee revolution of its own in the gaming console world. Have they done so? Debatable, although it is the world’s best-selling console to date and sales figures are over 7 million according to data released Wednesday.

Total Wii sales amounted to 7,024,239 consoles as of Sunday, according to gaming publisher and market data provider Enterbrain; definitely not a wee sum.

The Wii was a late-comer to the “next generation” console trio completed by the PS3 and Xbox 360, with a launch date of December 2, 2006. The former of its rivals launched early in November the same year, and the latter was actually the first to be launched a year earlier in 2005.

Analysts at the time doubted the Wii’s success because of its lack of high-definition graphics sported by both its competing counterparts, and its focus on casual gamers as opposed to the (hard) core crowd catered to by Sony and Microsoft. It was this very target shift however, along with the innovative motion-sensing controllers that accounted for its soaring sales.

Nintendo’s handheld console, the DS, isn’t doing badly in Japan either, with November 16 figures going over 24 million units sold, according to Enterbrain data. These sales have also been boosted in the past weeks thanks to the launch of the DSi, an updated version of the console. It would appear that the boost is rubbing off on the Wii as well.

Throughout the November 17 – 23 week, Nintendo held both first and second positions in Japan’s game software chart with Animal Crossing selling 303,204 copies since its Nov. 20 debut, and DS’s Chrono Trigger selling 276,049 copies.