Switch vs Wii in Japan – VGChartz Gap Charts – October 2019 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 December 2019 / 4,831 Views
The VGChartz Gap charts are updated monthly and each article focuses on a different gap chart. The charts include comparisons between the 7th generation and 8th generation platforms, as well as comparisons within the 8th generation. All sales are worldwide, unless otherwise stated.
Switch Vs. Wii Japan:
Gap change in latest month: 158,382 - NS
Gap change over last 12 months: 2,746,904 - NS
Total Lead: 1,562,284 - Wii
Switch Total Sales: 9,902,896
Wii Total Sales: 8,340,612
October 2019 is the 32nd month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for. During the latest month the Switch increased its lead over the Wii by 158,382 units and by 2.75 million units in the last 12 months. The Switch is currently ahead of the Wii by 1.56 million units.
The Wii launched in December 2006 in Japan, while the Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017. The Switch has sold 9.90 million units, while the Wii sold 8.34 million units during the same timeframe.
The 32nd month for the Nintendo Switch is October 2019 and for the Wii it is July 2009.
The Wii sold 12.77 million units lifetime in Japan. The Switch needs to sell another 2.87 million units to outsell the Wii.
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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Shouldn't that be Switch lead in the graph instead of Wii lead?
So Switch will surpass Wii lifetime sales within roughly 3 and a half years. Not that bad. Oh well, can we please get a Chart 3DS -vs- Switch in Japan? Would be pretty awesome :-) btw. just to mention: 3DS currently is about 3.5 million ahead of Switch. ;-)
Why the Wii was so weak in Japan compared to the rest of the world ?
Nintendo abandoned the Wii in 2010 to invest in the launch of its two new consoles, which cost long-term console sales. Since it had two consoles, one year after another to invest, it couldn't keep up the flow of games and the latest major games released, such as Skyward Sword and Other M, are very questionable and didn't please the console's core audience.
That was still before 2010 though. Wii peaked in Japan during it's first full year, where (including launch sales) it got over 40% of it's total sales from the country, and sales fell off more every year from there. Second year was still good, but it crashed down in it's third year in Japan in a similar way it did in the rest of the word 2 years later.
There were a variety of factors. Here is one that no one has mentioned yet: Wii Sports was not bundled with the hardware in Japan. NoA decided to bundle it in. (I think it was bundled in Europe too.) That plus the other factors mentioned meant Wii was not as popular in Japan as it was in the rest of the world.
And only 1 million until it's above the Xbox 1. Blows my mind. Great system.
