The Wii Has Taken Over!

Today, the Wii officially reached the top of the video game chart worldwide. According to the top online video game tracking site, VGChartz the Wii has now sold more consoles worldwide than the Xbox 360 as well as the PS3. It is no surprise to anyone that the Wii has sold more than the competing consoles. But it is a surprise to many how quickly the Wii surpassed the Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 originally November 22nd, 2006 and has sold approximately 10.51 million systems worldwide. Overall that is a very respectable number in the near two years since the original release date. The Wii however was not available until November 19th, 2007 or later in some parts of the world. Because the Wii released almost a full year after the Xbox 360 lower sales numbers would be expected, but that is surprisingly not the case. Today the Wii surpassed the Xbox 360 at nearly 10.57 million systems sold worldwide. Of course a major part of the sales difference is the support by Japan. The Wii sold 88% more systems in Japan than the Xbox 360. It is no surprise that the Wii outsold the Xbox 360 in Japan, but that large of a difference was unexpected by everyone.

Selling 10 million or more systems is not an unexpected benefit, but the speed with which the Wii sold out is phenomenal. The Wii sold more consoles in around 11 months, than the Xbox 360 has sold in nearly 2 years. That equates out to approximately double the sales rate of the Xbox 360. This Nintendo Phenomenon has not only been caused by the Wii, but because of the great response to the Wii the worldwide sales amount of the Nintendo DS has jumped considerably also. A possible explanation for why the Wii has become so popular is it's simplicity. Some of the newer game systems are overly complicated and require more of a "gamer attitude" to play and enjoy. The Wii, however; is designed for simplicity and for use by the "casual gamer" making it fun for everyone to play.

All the success from the Wii's popularity seems to have revived Nintendo in the video game industry. In fact, the Nintendo Wii was outselling the Sony PlayStation 3 by a 6 to 1 margin in June, and that margin has only grown since then. Nintendo has also jumped in Japan, Nintendo is now the fifth largest company in Japan, ahead of even Honda.

Source: http://www.vgchartz.com/news/news.php?id=508