This Week’s Numbers

A quick breakdown of this weeks sales numbers, just out.

Consoles:

The Wii sold 375k consoles this week. That is more consoles that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 combined. They sold 152k and 179k respectively. This shows a continued trend of the Wii totally blowing the other two comsoles out of the water. In other news, the Nintendo DS is also topping the charts with 379k units, which trumps the PSP’s 206K.

This is good news for Wii owners. As the Wii starts attracting such a wide user base, developers will be forced to reckon with the Wii. Ports to the Wii will become more common, and serious games designed specifically for it will rise in numbers. Wii games are expected to be slightly lower priced than other console’s games. That is keeping a lot of more serious developers away. But soon the numbers will speak for themselves and developers will basically have no choice.

Games:

The Wii sold 1.8 million games this week, which is almost five games per console. Again, this is way more than the Xbox 360 with 1.3 million or the Playstation 3 with .8 million. This time the Wii didn’t beat they both together. The games per console number is more important to Sony and Microsoft than it is to Nintendo. That is because both the Xbox and the Playstation 3 are actually selling at a net loss to the company. Both companies are relying on game sale to make it up. The Xbox is doing best in that regard, with 9 games per console, while the PS3 is about equal to the Wii with 5 games per unit. This is probably because the Wii and PS3 have been out for about the same amount of time while the Xbox has had a lot longer to sell consoles.

By Publisher:

Nintendo is definitely the biggest publisher this week, with over 1.9 million titles sold. The runner up, EA, only has a little more than a third that number. While on one hand this is good for Nintendo, on the other, third party releases on the Wii don’t get as much attention as Nintendo releases. This is something that needs to change if the Wii is to start attracting more serious developers.

By Game:

Wii Sports is topping the chart, but that is only because it is bundled with the Wii. Next up is Wii Play. I think that is because it comes bundles with a Wiimote. After that, Mario and Sonic Olympic Games, Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (not out in the US). No surprises there.

SSBB should get a huge number boost this week when it is released in North America on the 9th. I know that I, for one, will be buying it.

All the numbers just go to show that this little console is pack big punch. Here’s to everyone who scoffed at the Wii when it was unveiled in 2005.