Nintendo: Wii Fastest Ever to 30m in the USA (45 Months)
by Jacob Mazel, posted on 10 August 2010 / 1,867 Views
Earlier today, Nintendo put out this press release here.
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NINTENDO'S WII VIDEO GAME SYSTEM REACHES 30 MILLION SALES MILESTONE
Aug. 10, 2010
Nintendo's internal sales figures show that the Wii™ video game system has now sold 30 million units in the United States alone. This significant milestone was reached in just 45 months. This further establishes Wii as the fastest-selling console in the history of the industry, reaching this milestone 15 months faster than the next best-selling console.
Wii launched in November 2006 and ushered in a new era of video games. The built-in motion controls of the iconic Wii Remote™ controller drew millions of new players to the world of video games. Kids started playing with their parents and grandparents, people got up off the couch and got active, and seniors and baby boomers formed virtual bowling leagues.
"More than any other video game system in history, Wii has expanded the world of video games to new audiences," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "This milestone is another reminder that people want fun games they can play with others – all at a value-minded price."
To continue building on this foundation, Wii has a strong slate of games on the way for the fall. These include Metroid™: Other M on Aug. 31, Samurai Warriors™ 3 on Sept. 27, Kirby's Epic Yarn™ and Wii Party™ this fall, and Donkey Kong Country™ Returns, FlingSmash™ and PokéPark™ Wii: Pikachu's Adventure for the holidays. That's in addition to New Carnival Games® from 2K Play in September, NBA JAM from EA Sports in October, GoldenEye 007™ from Activision and Just Dance® 2 from Ubisoft this fall, and Disney Epic Mickey from Disney Interactive Studios and Sonic Colors™ from SEGA during the holidays.
The Wii video game system is now available in either black or white at a suggested retail price of $199.99. That price offers a great value to consumers, as it includes two engaging games, Wii Sports™ and Wii Sports Resort™, as well as the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ controllers and a Wii MotionPlus™ accessory, which brings additional precision to specially designed games.
The 30 million milestone is a good time to look back at all the fun Wii games and experiences that are just not possible on any other system. One of the unique features of the Wii platform is that many games follow an evergreen sales trend that keep them selling over long periods of time.
According to the independent NPD Group, the top 10 best-selling Nintendo-published Wii games in the United States (through the end of June) are:
1. Wii Play™
2. Mario Kart™ Wii
3. Wii Fit™ (with Wii Balance Board™ accessory)
4. New Super Mario Bros.™ Wii
5. Wii Sports Resort
6. Super Smash Bros.™ Brawl
7. Super Mario Galaxy™
8. Wii Fit™ Plus (with Wii Balance Board™ accessory)
9. Mario Party™ 8
10. Link's Crossbow Training
According to the independent NPD Group, the top 10 best-selling Wii games from third-party publishers in the United States (through the end of June) are:
1. Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock from Activision
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games™ from SEGA
3. LEGO® Star Wars™: The Complete Saga from LucasArts
4. Carnival Games™ from Take-Two Interactive
5. Game Party from Midway
6. EA Sports Active™ from Electronic Arts
7. Just Dance™ from Ubisoft
8. Rayman Raving Rabbids™ from Ubisoft
9. DECA SPORTS™ from Hudson Entertainment
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games™ from SEGA
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There are a couple points worth discussing in detail here. First, Just Dance is well over a million units in the USA according to Nintendo's May financial briefing which cited NPD data through March 2010.
From April to June, Just Dance then sold another 400,000 or so going by public NPD data and a reasonable estimate for May. Why am I mentioning this? Well it means in the USA the Wii has at least seven third party million sellers - and its likely that the top ten third party games - and possibly even more third party games - by NPD are all million sellers in the USA as well. The top ten is a bit strange, for instance, I have no recollection of Deca Sports appearing in the monthly top ten or twenty.
Nintendo's top ten titles are obviously all over 1 million units - by alot. What is a bit surprising is that Crossbow Training tops Twilight Princess. Overall, it looks like NPD has as many as 30-40 games selling over a million units on Wii, as Twilight Princess, Galaxy 2, Animal Crossing and others are also over 1 million.
On the hardware side, these are the only machines to ever reach sell-through (or shipments in older cases) in the United States (Americas for shipments) of over 30m units.
PS2 - 45m+ (50m+ shipped to Americas)
DS - 42m+ through July (48m shipped to Americas)
GB - 44m units shipment ltd in the Americas, likely around 39-42m in the USA
GBA - 41.6m shipped ltd in the Americas, likely 35m-37m in the USA
PS1 - 40.8m Production Shipments ltd in the Americas, likely 34-38m sold in the USA
Wii - 30m through July (35m+ shipped Americas)
NES - 34m shipped in the Americas, likely 30-32m in the USA
By sell through in the USA (systems in homes), Wii should become only the fourth system ever to top 40 million units by the end of 2011, joining PS2, DS, and GB. In terms of hardware sales growth, Wii remains a juggernaut in the United States.
PS2 launched in October 2000 and did not reach 30m until month 60 going by Nintendo's figures - although some information on the internet suggests PS2 reached 30m in month 61. Month 60/61 translates to September or October 2005. By that point Sony had dropped the PS2 price three times (to $200, then to $180, then to $150 - $150 off the original price) and already launched the PS2 Slim in the United States. Wii has had one 20% price cut - but remains roughly 25% ahead of where PS2 was at 45 months. The DS, which is probably the only other contender for 50 million in the USA needed 54 months and several hardware models (DS --> DS Lite --> DSi --> DSi XL) to reach 30m in the United States.
We should also note that Nintendo has sold 29.57m Wiis in the USA, by NPD figures, through the end of June 2010. This announcement likely gels with NPD results for July - meaning Wii sold roughly 430,000 in July by Nintendo's figures, if the NPD total through June is close to what Nintendo's figures show. Nintendo of America's internal figures and NPD figures do famously diverge at times - Nintendo said it sold "over 3 million units" of Wii during December 2009, while NPD ended up reporting nearly 4 million (presumably Nintendo would have said nearly 4m or over 3.5m instead of over 3m if it was 3.81m Wiis as NPD had said). At any rate, 430,000 Wiis would amount to Nintendo once again selling over 100,000 Wiis per week, which hasn't happened since March 2010 - which is why my guess is NPD & Nintendo have slightly different Wii totals through June.
Nintendo didn't total software figures for the USA, but Wii software shipments are 313 million through June. Even excluding bundled software, that puts both Wii sw shipments and PS2 sw production shipments in the Americas at 280m through three calendar years (2007-2009, 2001-2003), the first six months of full year four (2010, 2004), and the launch windows of 2000 / 2006. Not all "produced" software is shipped in the fiscal year - and so Wii is likely ahead of PS2 through the mid point of full year four. So the odds are the Wii should join PS2 as the only other system with software shipments of over 500m units in the Americas by the time Nintendo & publishers stop making Wii games.
Contact VGChartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
