Riding on a wave of nostalgia, the NES Classic Edition quickly became one of the hottest ticket items this holiday shopping season. Packed with 30 all-time classic 8-bit titles, from Super Mario Bros. 3 to Tecmo Bowl, the affordably priced NES Classic proved to be a huge hit with both young and older gamers alike.

During Nintendo's recent earnings report, the iconic gaming giant finally divulged some interesting data regarding the NES Classic Edition's popularity. Specifically, Nintendo revealed that it's already sold 1.5 million units across the globe.

That's quite impressive for a console that was incredibly hard to find even weeks after launch. To this point, Nintendo president Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima even apologized to fans for frustrating supply shortages.

"We apologize to our consumers and retail partners for the inconvenience caused by product shortages," Kimishima said. "Some parts require time to procure, but we are working to increase production. We also see the nostalgic interest in these products as an opportunity to draw consumers' attention to our latest game system, Nintendo Switch."

A previous report from the NPD Group showed that Nintendo sold upwards of 196,000 units during the month of November alone.

All in all, NES Classic Edition proved to be much more popular than most people anticipated. Interestingly enough, it even caught Nintendo off guard. With demand for the NES CE incredibly strong right off the bat, it wasn't long before we starting seeing eager fans spending top dollar for the throwback console on sites like eBay. Even now, buying a used NES CE will probably set you back at least a good $130.

As for the aforementioned Nintendo Switch that Kimishima alluded to, that's slated to hit store shelves on March 3 and will be priced at $299. You can read more about Nintendo's upcoming console here.