One of the biggest challenges of being a Nintendo blogger is finding new ways of telling your readers that the DS is popular in various regions of the world. We could take the easy route here and resort to writing about hot cakes and/or printing money, but no, we're just going to give it to you straight: in Europe, the DS is really, really popular.

We're not quite talking Japan levels of popularity here -- that would be insane. But it's doing jolly well, regardless. According to a swaggering Nintendo of Europe, the little handheld that could has sold through more than 20 million units in the region, as of the beginning of January.

And that's not all, folks: the games are also shifting in healthy numbers. Throughout the continent, Nintendogs is at the front, pulling furiously on its leash with 8 million sales. Everybody's favorite polygonal professor takes second, having sold 5 million copies of the bonce-honing Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, while New Super Mario Bros. grabs bronze with 3 million sales.

Get that conga line formed, people. You know the drill by now.

[Via press release]