Nearly 1.5 million 3DS handhelds sold in Japan during Christmas month

Japanese wire Sankei News is reporting hardware sales of an impressive 1,492,931 units for the Nintendo 3DS during the final month of 2011 in Japan.

By Enterbrain's reckoning, this is a new monthly sales record for any gaming platform in Japan since the print and online magazine publisher began tracking Japanese hardware and software sales back in 1997.

The 3DS has been witnessing a much needed revival over the past few months following a lukewarm launch which lead to price cuts that even Nintendo president Satoru Iwata saw fit to apologize to all the early adopters over. The bumpy road has finally lead to the 3DS topping Enterbrain's hardware sales charts for seven months. Meanwhile, lifetime-to-date sales for the handheld have hit 4 million units in North America alone.

Sony's PlayStation Vita made its big debut amidst the 3DS December bonanza, selling 402,794 units in just two weeks on the market to become the second best selling platform for the month.