“The Wii has sold more consoles in one week than Microsoft has done in 56 weeks,” Byron Hinson reports for ActiveXbox.com.
Partial list:
Console Name – Weekly Units Sold (All-time Units Sold)
Nintendo Wii – 350,358 (350,358)
PlayStation 3 – 31,436 (187,836)
Xbox 360 – 4,053 (178,069)
Full article here.
In related news, “Nintendo’s Wii has become the UK’s fastest-selling home console ever, with more than 100,000 units shifted during opening weekend,” Ellie Gibson reports for GamesIndustry.biz.
“Nintendo and Chart Track have confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that the Wii has become the fastest-selling home console ever, with 105,000 systems already sold,” Gibson reports. “Last week, Nintendo announced that consumers snapped up 50,000 Wii units within 12 hours of the console going on sale. The tills continued to ring over the next two days, making the Wii the first console to sell more than 100,000 units during its opening weekend.”
Full article here.
Not Apple-related, but may be interesting to some MDN readers. We’re following the story of Nintendo’s Wii for pretty obvious reasons.
Related articles:
Microsoft CEO Ballmer confident Xbox 360 will sell in Japan, touts HD DVD over Blu-ray – November 16, 2005
Nintendo Wii a must-have on every gadget lover’s Christmas list – December 12, 2006
Nintendo beefs up Wiimote’s strap after controllers go flying – December 08, 2006
Ars Technica review: Nintendo Wii – November 28, 2006
Nintendo sells over 600,000 Wii consoles at launch – November 20, 2006
PC Magazine Editor’s Choice: Nintendo Wii is ‘fun, engaging, wildly innovative’ – November 14, 2006
5 must-have Nintendo Wii launch games – October 09, 2006
Nintendo’s Wii on Toys ‘R’ Us hot holiday list – September 26, 2006
Nintendo to launch Wii in Japan on December 2nd, priced around US$200 – September 14, 2006
IBM ships first microchips for Nintendo Wii – September 10, 2006
Can Nintendo’s Wii end up number one in market share? – July 18, 2006
Nintendo Wii wins E3 ‘Best of Show’ award – June 01, 2006
Nintendo’s Wii steals show at Electronic Entertainment Expo – May 12, 2006
How come Microsoft said last week that the xbox 360 was selling “like hotcakes” in Japan? When I read that I was extremely doubtful, since the 360 is huge with a power supply as big as my hyundai, so I couldn’t believe the Japanese, who are obsessed with small gadgets that conserve space, would welcome that beast into their drawer homes.
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Thanks for this important Mac update.
I really thing is this case we should give Microsoft a break… the games division is working in a fair way. I would stay away from everything Sony….
Anyway, I’m buying a Wii!
Jooop> Maybe MS wasn’t lying. Not untill we see some figures on “Hotcake” sales in Japan.
Get the Wii, it’s fantastic. You can’t beat Rayman on it.
Selling like “hotcakes” is different in Japan than in North america.
Last time i checked the japanese don’t actually like hotcakes.
What are the obvious reasons? I guess I missed something.
Besides the obvious point that Jooop made about the physical size of the XBox 360 and it’s componants, I can’t help but feel there’s some “home grown” mentality at play here..
Both Sony and Ninendo are Japanese companies, where Microsoft is US, and I’d be willing to bet even if XBox was smaller, lighter and had better games it might get a lukewarm reaction for that reason alone.
The Wii is obviously going to be huge. It’ll probably put Nintendo right back on top again. This proves that however bad the name is, if the product is good enough, it’ll sell.
The same thing, of course, is happening to Apple. It’ll take a little longer, but I believe that in 2007 the snowball effect of Apple’s sales, which has already started, will gather even more momentum.
Particularly after the disappointment which will inevitably follow Vista’s introduction to the home market.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines – AGAIN:
“The “pretty obvious reasons” for which MDN is “following the story of Nintendo’s Wii” are not so obvious to me. I can think of several reasons…”
Uh, nevermind.
I am sure all of you Microsoft haters love this. but in all reality. even if apple made a game console it would fail in Japan. Anything US made would fail. they are loyal to their own country.
Nintendo, of course, will also gradually improve the graphics; but only when it’s financially viable.
Sony and MS wanted the best graphics at any cost – however huge – and this could prove to be a mistake. It means that any substantial dip in the sales of games could mean that they can’t cover the losses they make on the consoles.
Nintendo’s smart – like Apple.
I’m not interested in the Wii either. But this story does illustrate what an utter failure both the Xbox and Xbox 360 have been in Asia. Microsoft hasn’t made any inroads there.
If apple had some Japanese tie-in it would be doing really well in Japan too… but Japanese people have a penchant for quality small stylish things… “made by a Japanese company” is a big draw… even if Sony probably sells 100x more outside of Japan than in…
The ipod is holding its own in Japan… however.
@ SJR: “I’m not interested in the Wii either. But this story does illustrate what an utter failure both the Xbox and Xbox 360 have been in Asia. Microsoft hasn’t made any inroads there.”
While I’m NOT a PS3 fan, as I understand it, the PS3 is selling out each and every box made. There are currently waiting lists for people to buy PS3s even in Japan. This is not the mark of a product failure. It is, if anything, the mark of too poor a production rate.
IIRC Microsoft did not sell out the 360 in Japan after the first couple of weeks — and may not after the first week or so. The 360 has had relatively poor sales (for many of the reasons given above) in Japan virtually since the start.
Lumping the two into the same class of “utter failure” is, at this point, flatly inaccurate.
The reason for the much higher Wii sales figures is that they have had a much greater poduction build up prior to launch. It would have been interesting if Sony really had met their launch goals and seen what their sales figures would have been then.
A sobering point is that the PS2 is still the highest selling game machine — outpacing all three newcomers in world wide sales.
We should all check back in six months with all three are in full production, and the initial sales rush is over. Sony has claimed they will have as many as 6 million systems shipped worldwide by the end of June 2007. Let’s see if they sell them all.
I just got a 360 and have really been enjoying it. I’ll probably pick up the Wii this spring, too.
My ideal dream is that Microsuck gives up on everything except their gaming division, because it’s actually not that bad. Unlike everything else they make. Not sure why it’s like that, and maybe it’s just my own opinion.
eMax,
Bullshit. Apple iPod and iTunes dominate the Japan market. Last time I checked, Apple was a US company.
This is awful news. Why don’t people understand that it is in their best interests to let Microsoft control whatever market they participate in? For whatever reason people are letting the miserable iPod monopoly destroy music and MP3 players, now their doing it with game consoles.
No one can deny that the past few decades of computing with Microsoft on top has been pure bliss. Why don’t game console users want the same hassle-free, stable, and pleasant experience Windows has given us in the personal computing space?
Hey Nintendo and Sony lemmings, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride until Microsoft comes to the rescue just like they did with operating systems. I holding out hope XBox will come out on top for your sake.
Your potential. Our passion.
I picked up my son’s Wii on day one. Obviously had to plug it in and check it out. I’m not a gamer at all, but just the basic sports games that come with it are fantastic to play. The Wii remote just makes a fantastic connection between the player and the game. I even worked up a sweat playing tennis.
Also if you see the videos of the games on the Nintendo site, they don’t just show the games, they show the people playing the games, and they are never alone. People are enjoying the games together. Welcome the the social.
I am one of those Microsoft haters who wishes them ill. The fact that they are getting creamed in this market fills me with schadenfreude. Microsoft is evil. The wooden stake needs to be pounded through the vampires rotten heart and the beast thrown into a hot lava flow.
The Xbox is cool, great, awesome – really. I guess the real problem is that, more and more people are simply getting tired of feeling like they have to buy MS products. And in case anyone has forgotten, we simply DO NOT HAVE TO. The world will operate just fine without it, arguably better.
Zune Tang: you so funny!
I browse this time from time to time to see how low and ridiculous the Mac fanboys can be. Note that I didn’t write Mac users, I wrote Mac fanboys. This website is the among the lamest on the Internet. Every single article is soaked in stupidity! And now, a cheap shot at Microsoft? Is Mac in the games market? I don’t hate Macs. But the existence of websites like this one makes me resent Mac users A PRIORI. Don’t call me stupid or narrow minded, that’s the way life is. If everyday you see hooligans wreaking havoc, don’t blame the average Joe for getting the feeling that the average football supporter is a hooligan. And I am NOT an MS fanboy, I use Windows, Linux and Unix everyday, and based on my experience, Mac OS X seems like a great OS.
Is it worth just getting a Playstation for the Blu-Ray player?
@ Daniel
Please check the grammatical correctness of your posts before hitting the submit button. You’re really showing yourself up.