Nintendo announced today that Wii Play, the first party mini-game title, bundled with additional Wii remote has sold 10 million units since its debut in February 2007.
According to the NPD research group Wii Play is now the top-selling software on all consoles and portable systems in the United States.
“Wii Play mini-games are fun and they get people playing together,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Even if you believe people are buying Wii Play solely for the controller, that indicates that there are now more than 10 million people who have an extra Wii Remote controller in their homes. When added to the 12.7 million Wii Remote controllers that have sold separately, this reinforces the growing ‘social gaming’ trend we have been seeing where friends and family use their Wii games as a social hub – both in person and online.”
The month of February was very kind to Nintendo in terms of hardware sales, the big N saw a 74% increase over last year’s mark with nearly 753,000 shiny-white Wii consoles sold in the shortened month of February.‚ However, the Wii was not the only piece of Nintendo hardware flying off the shelves.‚ The DS sold a truly staggering 588,000 units in February.
How did the rest of the industry giants fair in February?
- Wii – 753,000
- Nintendo DS – 588,000
- Xbox 360 – 391,000
- PlayStation 3 – 276,000
- PSP – 199,000
- PlayStation 2 – 131,000
“The U.S. video games industry continues to post strong year-over-year comps despite the tough economy,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Unit sales increased even more than dollar sales did, reflecting a slightly lower average retail price for all categories as compared to last year.”
“The Xbox 360 realized its biggest non-holiday sales month, save for September 2007, when the Halo 3 release brought in a large group of new owners. Compared to last month, the PS3 realized the greatest month-over-month unit sales increase of all platforms.”
Best sellers for the entire month are as follows:
01. Wii Fit (Wii) – 644,000
02. Street Fighter IV (360) – 446,000
03. Street Fighter IV (PS3) – 403,000
04. Wii Play (Wii) – 386,000
05. Killzone 2 (PS3) – 323,000
06. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – 263,000
07. Call of Duty: World at War (360) – 193,000
08. Mario Kart DS (DS) – 145,000
09. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) – 144,000
10. Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) – 136,000
I love industry monetary figures; they never cease to amaze me.‚ The economy may be hurting, but people know what they want and gaming is just too great a hobby to give up.
Leave a Reply