Nintendo's Wii console has now sold over five million units in Japan, according to the latest sales figures.

Game tracking service Enterbrain said that the hugely popular system had reached unit sales of 5,019,337 as of 20 January.

Despite stock shortages over the Christmas period, Nintendo beat its own games console sales record held by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and edged out Sony's best effort as well.

Japanese gamers took just 60 weeks to snap up the five million Wii consoles, compared to the PS2 which took 66 weeks.

However, Nintendo fell short of making a new record, as the DS handheld console sold five million units in just 56 weeks.