
Top 10 Best-Selling Wii Games - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 24 October 2015 / 33,056 ViewsToday we take a look at the top 10 best-selling games for yet another platform. Up to this point we have looked at the original PlayStation, the Nintendo 64, the PlayStation 2, the original Xbox, the GameCube, the Nintendo DS, and the PSP. This week it's the turn of Nintendo's most popular home console, the Wii.
The Wii is the fifth best-selling video game platform in history and the third best-selling home console in gaming history. It is also the best-selling home console not released by Sony. It sold 101.18 million units lifetime.
It was most successful in North America, but also sold well in other regions. It sold 45.38 million units in North America, 33.75 million units in Europe, and 12.77 million units in Japan. It also sold a combined 9.28 million units across the rest of the world.
With its strong install base the Wii also managed to shift a massive amount of games. 157 games for the console managed to sell over one million units and 21 games sold more than five million units. Every entry in the top 10 exceeded a whopping 10 million sales. Below we've compiled the 10 best-selling Wii games.
10th. Just Dance 3 - 10.11 Million
9th. Super Mario Galaxy - 11.29 Million
8th. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 12.68 Million
7th. Wii Fit Plus - 21.80 Million
6th. Wii Fit - 22.69 Million
5th. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 28.09 Million
4th. Wii Play - 28.91 Million
3rd. Wii Sports Resort - 32.71 Million
2nd. Mario Kart Wii - 35.30 Million
1st. Wii Sports - 82.50 Million
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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A monster, look at those software numbers!
I don't see why many people hated Smash Bros on the Wii. To be honest, the story was actually a feature that was very enjoyable.
Nobody had a problem with the story. Most people preferred Melee because of the physics and how the game played. This was done to make it easier and accessible to newer players. In Smash 4, they created more of a balance between Melee and Brawl.
i couldn't agree more.
Most of these games sold more copies then Nintendo sold Wii U consoles. the Wii was a suprising sales cannon. Some of the games on this list, like mario kart, super smash bros and mario are great games tough!
Half of these have sold more than PS4 and X1 too...
It was cheap. That was a good thing. And most of the games looked fine in 480p
The beast! :-)
Crazy how those 10 games combined sold over a quarter million games or over a quarter of all the wii games sold.
I think NSMB will have higher sales than Wii Play by the end of this year.
Ahh, the Wii. Best selling Nintendo console of all time despite an avalanche of shovelware in its library. And LOL @ Wii Play and Wii Fit / Wii Fit + in the top 10... nothing but plastic peripherals disguised as games.
Those games were good for what they were. Compared to the shovelware that system had, Nintendo's casual games were actually well made. On this particular chart however, I would say that Wii Play is the weakest game.
wii play yes, but not wii fit. Most people did not buy wii fit because they wanted the balance board. Most people only used the board for wii fit. Winning system always got tons of shovelware. Wii had tons of good games.
What makes these numbers even more crazy is the fact that Nintendo first party software rarely gets reduced even as the generation finished, Mario Kart wii copies were still selling for almost full original price at least here in Ireland right up til the point where the Wii online services were being taken down, Ninty made a killing with this system and as many put it here as a negative they also used a lot of hardware left over from the failed GC era which would have helped them recoup some of the big losses suffered with that ERA.
Wii is a beast
Smash Bro was so fun when I still had friends to come to play with. It was just like the Melee days but with more characters and FINAL SMASH.
Now all my friends are playing LOL >_>
Its quite amazing to see just how well first party software did on this platform.
Wii Fit is THE SHIT!
Am I the only one who would rather see a top 10 list that DOESN'T include bundled games?
To be fair, outside both Wii Sports none of those were bundled in a greater capacity than any other regular game. There were other bundles outside those featuring some of these games as well, and most late bundles like MK and NSMB were sold simultaneously.
Every game these days are being bundled by certain retailers.
If a game sells over 10 million, it's gonna get bundled. That's just how bundling works, you bundle the games that are most popular, the ones that will move the most hardware. Yes, wii play is kind of silly because people just bought it for the controller mostly. Wii sports would have sold far less, but make no mistake it still probably would have been #1, or at least #2 on this list.
"Every game these days are being bundled by certain retailers."
Exactly. But not in case of the Wii. The Wii has been bundled with Nintendo games only except for a very few exception. CoD Bundles, Battlefront, TloU, Killzone, Knack, Watchdogs, Driveclub, Assassins, Fifa, Destiny ... i can think of more OFFICIAL PS4 Bundles now after two years of release than the Wii ever had in its whole lifetime.
"If a game sells over 10 million, it's gonna get bundled. That's just how bundling works, you bundle the games that are most popular"
So the Wii Sports series sold 115M+ combined with only 2 games ? :o
:) at that Wii Sports number.
9/10 are Nintendo games. :)
Imagine if third parties had made an effort on it.
We'd have the Nintendo empire back and console gaming would have been restored to its golden age.
Tied as my favorite system with the GameCube. I'm still buying and playing games on my Wii! Such an awesome system!
no excuse to get rid of special weapons for MKW.
I don't like these lists including Wii Sports. It was packaged with EVERY Wii for the longest time. That number is so deceptive. Much more worthy are Mario Kart numbers.
Same thing for Tetris on Game Boy, or Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt for NES. Some people buy the bundle who don't want the game, others buy it because of the game, and there is no way to tell. I bought a Wii very late in the game, when there were lots of bundle choices, and I specifically chose the Wii Sports + Resort one.
Amazing numbers, especially for Wii Sports, despite being sold as a bundle!
Man, whether bundled or casual, there is no denying the Wii was a beast in its time...
Wow! The wii fit franchise was a success!!!! Hopefully that this magic won't be the last one for Nintendo
Wow Nintendo led that thing. Sometimes I wonder if Nintendo needs 3rd parties to survive. Of course they do now but man...those numbers!!!
This just proves whatever sells most isnt always the best..... Feel like theres lots of games that deserve to be on the top10 sales list more than those up there.
there's nothing wrong with any of the "games" (does wii fit count?) on the list. these are pieces of software that had widespread appeal, whether you like them or not. i was in college when wii came out and everyone was excited to play all of these.
While Digital Foundry writes up an article about anisotropic filtering on PS4/Xbox One...
Kinda makes you wonder if things like that are really important when it comes to video game sales...
If graphics are so significantly important, there wouldn't be a huge and growing market for indie games. Bravely Default wouldn't have give Square a profit. WoW wouldn't have dominated the MMO market. In terms of the whole package of what makes a game fun, graphics actually aren't as high on priority as the other parts of the whole. They still have to fit and do their part, but they aren't as significant as other things.
The good old days of easy money with simple and cheap software. Smart phones and tablets learned the lesson and now they're screwed. Better luck next system.
Oh come on. Wii Sports doesn't count.