Worldwide Wii Sales Pass Gamecube Sales During the Week Ending 2/16/08 - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 14 February 2008 / 4,607 Views
Vgchartz Cumulative Worldwide Data: Wii passes Gamecube LTD Sales* on 2/10/08
Jacob Mazel
February 14, 2008
Wii Sales Pass Predecessor
Nintendo’s latest console, the Wii, which was released in November 2006 in North America, and December 2006 in the rest of the world will surpass the lifetime sales of the Nintendo Gamecube by February 16, 2008. Through February 9, 2008 Wii has sold 21.490 million consoles, while Gamecube had sold 21.515** million consoles. Worldwide, Gamecube has been selling fewer than 500 units per week lately, while Wii has been selling several hundred thousand units per week. Using the week ending February 9th, when Wii sold 447,000 units in one week as an estimate for rate of increase (~64,000 units sold worldwide per day) for the week ending 2/16 Wii lifetime sales caught and surpassed Gamecube lifetime sales on February 10th, 2008. Even if Nintendo only ends up selling 175,000 Wiis for the week ending 2/16/08, Wii passed Gamecube on February 10th, 2008. Considering Nintendo sold nearly 300,000 Wiis just in the Americas and Japan for the week ending February 9, 2008, it is very unlikely Wii has not already passed Gamecube lifetime sales as of the writing of this article (February 14).
** Figures can be seen here http://vgchartz.com/weekly.php
The Decline from NES to GC
Prior to the release of Wii, subsequent Nintendo consoles since the NES have seen falling sales. Lifetime NES shipments hit just over 61 million, but SNES shipment totals declined to 49 million. After the SNES, sales fell further with Nintendo 64 lifetime shipments about 33 million. GC lifetime sales declined further still: the console will never reach 22 million boxes shipped. In the wake of Gamecube though, Nintendo has a console likely (if the current best case scenario for Nintendo continues) to be the most successful in the history of the industry - a console that continues to reach sales milestones faster than PS2 over a year into launch. At worst, Nintendo has a console that reversed the trend of declining sales following the NES. In either case, Wii is a success story for Nintendo.
What the Future May Hold for Wii Sales
It is also worth noting that while Wii sales have now surpassed Gamecube sales worldwide, and that while Wii sales have already passed Gamecube sales in Eurasia, Gamecube lifetime sales remain a few million ahead of Wii lifetime sales in the Americas. Wii will not pass Gamecube lifetime sales in the Americas for at least six months, although it should happen by the end of October.
In the next month to six weeks, Wii sales will surpass Xbox sales. Following that, Wii sales are on target to pass Sega Genesis sales and Nintendo 64 sales by August. Toward the end of the year, Wii sales will likely approach or surpass SNES lifetime sales.
When using the first launch date of each console (Sept 01’ for Gamecube in Japan and Nov 06’ for Wii in the USA) to compare when sales milestones were reached, the difference in timing to reach 21+ million units is quite striking. Put simply, Wii sales worldwide in 15 months are equal to Gamecube sales in 77 months. One way to interpret that is to say Wii is selling five times faster than Gamecube since Wii needed 1/5 the time to reach the same number of sales Gamecube has attained. Assuming the trend of Wii topping Gamecube shipments by 5:1 continued over the entire lifetime of Wii sales, worldwide shipments would hit 110 million in 77 months.
*Lifetime sell through, not shipments. Shipment data is released from Nintendo every three months. Gamecube shipments are 21.72 million through December 31, 2007, and Wii shipments are 20.13 million through December 31, 2007. Nintendo’s Wii shipment target from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 is 18.5 million, which means over 24 million Wiis will be shipped lifetime on March 31, 2008 if Nintendo hits it goal, since 5.8 million Wiis had been shipped through March 31, 2007. Nintendo’s most recent shipment data can be seen here http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2008/080124e.pdf#page=8.
Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
More Articles
go wii
Good job Ninty... were proud of you.
Let's say the "fad" does last 2.5 years, that will be 15 more months. Right now it is 21.5 million + 15 months @ 1.8 million = 21.5 + 27 million + 1.5 extra for holidays = 50 million... Little too late for another console to catch up in May of 09.
I personally think the XBox 360 is a fad... The numbers are at least pointing in that direction. At least, more so than on the Wii. I mean Xbox has nothing the Wii has and PS3 has everything XBox has (I mean that's worth it).
That Guy,
You forgot about all the casuals who bought Wii Play. So, sometime in August. At least that's what CrazzyMath dictates.
CHEERS!!! XD
lets celebrate!
so that means that all Marioboys and GCN owners will have their wiis and the Wii sales will drop to 0 after this date, right?
Well done Ninty - passing the GC didn't take long at all! Now for the XBOX... (can't be all that far away!)
Xbox next up!
@DMeisterJ:
DS hasn't dropped in price in Japan in two years, of course sales would slow down after a point, Wii can always cut its price when sales slow, let's not forget under 200 is the sweet spot for console sales, and Wii is still supply constrained in some areas, as shown by last weeks in NA, so we don't know how long it can go before needing a price drop
@ Avinash_Tyagi
Yeah, at the pace it's going now, if it keeps selling at this rate, it would outsell the PS2 in a few years, but that mean it'd have to continue selling at that rate every week for the next three or four years. If it did do that, then yeah, it'd reach it, but look at what's happening to the DS now. I mean it was sellig over 100k (save for a few weeks) every week in Japan this time last year, and was easily passing 200k on some weeks. But now, year over year, it dropped about 100k. Do we know that that will happen with the Wii? no, not really, but let's not go about predicting the future right now, and wait.
@superchunk:
It'll be up later this year for the N64, and possibly late this year early next year for the Snes, and next year for the NES and possibly the PS1 late next year early the year after
Wii FTW!!! I can't wait for this article to be repeated in a few years when wii passes LTD PS1 sales followed by PS2 later that same year.
@DMeisterJ:
At its current rate Wii is selling around 335K a week, 77 months is a little over 6.4 years or about 333 weeks, wii has been out for 64 weeks, which means 269 weeks left, even if Wii sold at an average of 335K each week, it would be over 111 million sold by the end of 77 months, and that's only if Wii remains at its current average sales rate for the remaining 269 weeks, likely it will rise as production increases
At worst, you can say Wii Fad > Sony Fad + MS Fad
It'll never pass Gizmondo sales!!
@azrm2k
OSNAP Nintendo bought the ductape industry! It's the secret to their success!
OT:
Gratz Nintendo. I remember them saying they would consider the Wii a failure if it didn't outsell the Gamecube by the next generation.
RIP Gamecube, you served me well for several years.
LIES!!! ALL LIES!!! Vgcharts severely undertracks GC! By my count GC sales are at 63 million and duct tape is literally flying off the shelves! :-D
"In the next month to six weeks, Wii sales will surpass Xbox sales. Following that, Wii sales are on target to pass Sega Genesis sales and Nintendo 64 sales by August. Toward the end of the year, Wii sales will likely approach or surpass SNES lifetime sales."
Noooooooooooooooooooo, they are outselling Nintendo's consoles....oh wait :P
@XiaoMay Gamecube 1st year ruled against Wii (in Europe)(GC was released May 3 ´02 along with Rogue Squadron II, Wave Race and those keeped me enjoyed till SSBM was released May 24 '02) GC's first year outrules Wii's 1st year easily with these games only.
"DMeisterJ says:
Wii at 110 mil in less than 77 months?
I lol'd"
Well i LOL'd for you, because it is pretty much possible you know.
Ps2 sold 99.786.876 consoles in that time frame and Wii is has been selling more than Ps2 till today (btw Ps2 sold 9.670 million against Wii's 21.493 million at this time of it's lifetime)
http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=PS2®3=All&weeks=335
Congrats for Wii and Nintendo :D
Well congrats for the Wii :)
A major milestone for the Wii, and the reverse of a decade-long trend for Nintendo. No matter how you feel about the console "wars", congratulations should be in order. Of course, we couldn't get through even 10 comments without someone contending that the Wii is a "fad"...
Renar, Wii skeptics will never change their tune. They will insist that the system is a fad/joke/destroying gaming right up until the generation ends, at which point in time they will insist that the Wii should have lost, because the competition was so much better. In fact, you've seen one person in this very thread (Riot of the Blood) who believes that the Gamecube was the best system of the previous generation, and still can't embrace the PS2.
Congratulations! Hooray for the Wii, Nintendo is succeeding again :D
Renar - Well, that depends on the system and its technology. I mean, PSP sales are surging in Japan, but how many are using it for Skype as opposed to playing games? How many people bought a PS3 as a cheap BluRay player as opposed to a gaming system?
It's pretty safe to say for the Wii, people are playing SOMETHING on it, considering it is geared strictly to play games, no real multimedia features.
Very good Nintendo.
Any predictions on what system the Wii will need to pass before the naysayers go from saying "it's a fad" to "well, real gamers aren't buying it, only the non-gamers"?
As if, a) buying a console means you don't really play its games and b) somehow they can tell the difference between a gamer's dollar and a regular one.
Its looking pretty good for Nintendo, but it still has a long way to go until they pass the PS2. The PS2 so far this year has sold 11.38mil units at the end of December, Sony has their year end March31. If you look at Sony's sales records they have shipped/sold about 126mil consoles.
Good to see and hear. That's pretty interesting, considering the Wii has only been out less than a year and a half. With the popularity rate going on, and the increased developer support, the Wii has the potential to make history as the top selling console of all time.
Passing gamecube sales, Is like passing an handicaped person at the special olympics...
At the end of this year I guess it will pass the snes sales..IF Nintendo keep their promise of producing more Wii's.
im glad nintendo is finally getting back in place
I personally believe that the Wii will pass both the GC and N64 this year. SNES mid next year. NES late next year, early 2010.
I expect the console will sell 15-20 million each year.
One of them sales this year will be coming from me, that's fo' sho'.
Congratulations Nintendo.
@ Avinash_Tyagi
Wii at 110 mil in less than 77 months?
I lol'd
congrats
Well said, mariozeldametroid.
just because u don't personally like a product, that doesn't make it a fad
wii is more powerful than ps2/gc/xbox and all previous consoles, so if it is a fad, so is every video game system made prior to 2005
u can think it is underpowered compared to its competitors while we think its competitors are using an obsolete control system
but calling it a fad is fanboyism or ignorance
X-Man: what you say is so pathetic. At first I thought you were being sarcastic, but you seem to be serious. Right. I tell you, at first people thought videogames in general was a fad. Was it? I'll let you figure that out yourself. And was Pokémon a fad? Every big Pokémon game still sells well over 10 million, and every game, EVERY game, with Pokémon on it sells 1 million or close to 1 million.
People also thought PSX was a fad, you know? Nintendo would be leading again, when the all-powerful N64 would enter the stage. The hype would be over. Did this happen? NO! Sony reigned the damn industry for well over 10 years!
So, in order to stop your ignorant gibbering, I blame Wii Fit.
Good for wii. @X-Man troll much?
@XiaoMay
I don't doubt it will last a few years, but no longer than that, maybe half a generation. That's not long enough to overtake the PSX, let alone the PS2.
@daactualfact
Calm your panties, I didn't say the Wii would stop selling this year, but it sure will feel left out in the software department. Smash Bros. and Wii Kart isn't enough
@Riot,
How exactly is the Gamecube better when the Wii can do pretty much everything the Gamecube can (including playing 99% of its games) and more?
It's all uphill from here.
THE console war is nearing completion!!!! Now we need to see the second place console. (it's ps3 for sure. 360 may not be able to beat it to long. good Sony.) Wii is 1st and this may won't change! (gta4 won't change it!) as for america, it's Wii who is winning! ps3 is taking america away from 360.
No offense Microsoft but:
LET THE JAPANESE HANDLE THE VIDEOGAMES!
Well done Nintendo! 2008 will be another good year. :-)
@Riot Of The Blood : people have a tendancy to forget.
As an example, the GameCube launched in North America with the following 12 games:
All-Star Baseball 2002
Batman Vengeance
Crazy Taxi Hitmaker
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Disney's Tarzan Untamed
Luigi's Mansion
Madden NFL 2002
NHL Hitz 20-02
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
Super Monkey Ball
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Wave Race: Blue Storm
So much for the better 1st year...
Ps2 sold 26 million in its second year! Wii will break that?! Amazing.
To everyone saying Wii is a fad, what makes you think 20 million people in the 1st year won't spread the Word around about Wii to make it constantly sell? The Ps3's word went around before Wii began so I expect over 70 million for Ps3. I expect 127 million for Wii!
@xmen
don'y smoke crack it's bad for you! If 20 million were sold and there are actually some games coming out, compared to 2007 where there was only galaxy and prime, why would it stop selling?? Who the hell are you! I don't feel like hearing your mouth!
"@Riot Of The Blood : on it's 1st year ?"
Yes, the way I remember it the gamecube was better than the Wii it's first year.
@Jigglypuff : I DO remember a fad called Nintendo DS.
@X-Man : Who said Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter 3, Mario Kart Wii, Final Fantasy CC 2 and more to come ? ^^
A fad that will last a few years for sure.
@XiaoMay
I know, that's what a fad does, it sells insanely for a while and then dies off.
The Wii won't be selling 5-6 years into its lifetime like the PSX.
Remember the fad Nintendo had called Pokemon? oh wait, still selling millions...
@X-Man : if you compare the 1st year, the Wii waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay outsold the PSX.
@Riot Of The Blood : on it's 1st year ?
Shame. The Gamecube was a much better console than the Wii.
@Avinash_Tyagi
It's only been one year. Come back to me when it passes PSX sales.
@X-Man:
Sure its a fad, in 10 years it'll start dropping off :-P
^ Microsoft domination ;)
it begins! sony domination!
wait..
I still think the Wii is a fad, it's only been out a year, even Tamagotchis lasted longer.
Very good read @TheSource.
Gooooo Wiiiii....
Ah, how I enjoy your posts, TheSource.
I think the gap between Wii and GCN shipments will grow, since right now Nintendo is still undershipping Wii, so Wii won't take 77 months to hit 110 million, it'll probably break it much faster
Cool to see
So whats next in console numbers to pass, original xbox I think could be wrong though
Passing the GCN, N64 and SNES in one year would be ungodly. I truly believe the Wii is capable.
Congrats to Nintendo, hopefully they can get their supply upped some more to increase those figures faster.
