Wii breaks Aussie sales records

As the Wii's list of impressive global launch numbers continue to trickle in, figures just in from the Australian launch are equally impressive. According to data trackers GfK Australia, Nintendo's new console has become the fastest-selling piece of game hardware in the nation's history.

GfK stats show that Nintendo sold 32,901 Wiis in the first four days since its launch on December 7--a new record for both console and portable game units. The Wii takes the title of fastest-seller from the Xbox 360, which sold 30,421 units sold in its first four days of availability. Before the 360, Sony's PlayStation Portable was king with 27,055 units sold in the first four days. Such was the Wii's dominance in its launch week that it accounted for 43 percent of all game hardware sales in Australia.

GfK senior account manager Daniel Morse said the Wii had an attach rate of 1.5--attach rates describe the average number of games purchased per console. "New consoles generally get an attach rate of 1.5 to 2, but you have to take into account that the Wii was bundled with a game," Morse says. The Wii's bundled game--Wii Sports--was not included in the attach rate figures.

The Australian figures follow similarly impressive Wii debuts in other countries. In the US, gamers bought 600,000 Wiis in the first eight days after launch, while Japanese gamers scooped up 372,000 units in just two days. In Britain, 50,000 Wiis were sold in the console's first 12 hours of sale.