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Wii sells 5 million in Japan

Nintendo has even more reason to be cheerful as Famitsu reveals the latest sales figures for its home country.

In case it wasn't already obvious, more figures have been released that show that the Nintendo Wii is selling quite well.

According to an article in Famitsu magazine that quotes data from Enterbrain, the Wii has now sold over five million units in Japan alone.

The report also lists the five top-selling Nintendo Wii games in Japan. At number one is Wii Sports, which has so far sold 2,663,938 units; followed by Wii Play with 2,139,084; Mario Party 8 with 1,153,648; Wii Fit with 1,113,626; and last but not least Super Mario Galaxy with 843,961. In Japan, Wii Play comes bundled with an extra controller, as it does in the UK and America, but Wii Sports doesn't come with the console and has to be purchased separately.

Nintendo's third-quarter financial results are due to be released tomorrow, and one analyst has stated that he thinks the company is likely to beat its "conservative" estimates of a $14.5 billion guidance, and that it will be announced that some seven million Wiis will have been sold globally.

140 Comments

  • Nomad0404

    Posted Feb 1, 2008 5:57 am GMT

    Ok Mertron and your 360 can't even do WiFi out of the box - you have to pay $$ or ££ to do so! That's great that isn't it!

    Oh and red ring of death? Oh and you pay extra for the HD-DVD player

    Oh and you only get an HDMI connection in some of the newer machines.

    Oh and they've taken out the HDD but they want you to download content rather than play High Def movies on a disk format.

    The only thing the 360 has going for it is the games and slowly slowly the PS3 is getting the edge in that department.

    M% did have the chance to really make a killing and put the PS3 to bed - but they've lost their way and now face a desperate battle to cling onto third.

    The Wii is different, the wii doesn't pretend to try and offer next gen gaming but then is next gen gaming such a leap from what the DC could do is Soul Calibur 4 that much better than Soul Calibur really? I don't think so.

    Although I generally agree that the Wii needs some better quality games and it needs them fast.

  • Toddbu

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 4:58 pm GMT

    Think about how many consoles the U.S. would sell if you can find a Wii. The game developers have to be getting mad because they could sell a lot more games if the system was more available!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Ozzie234

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 1:47 pm GMT

    If so many developers are jumping onto the Wii, then why doesn't anything good gamewise show up? The shelves are still EMPTY apart from the odd decent release from Nintendo themselves (now, does THAT sound familliar?). And if you wonder how the Wii community feels about their product, just jump into ANY forum on the Internet and hear the Wii owners endless complaints on why this and that game looks so crappy on their so-called next-gen console, why the sound sucks, and why there's no DLC's and so on.... happy fanbase? Me thinks not.

  • warriortyson

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 12:28 pm GMT

    That's a lotta Wiis.

  • nate1222

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 7:28 am GMT

    @Omega_Wolf89

    Good point. I believe the Wii will have some 'hardcoe' games. No More Heroes and SW The Force Unleashed already prove it. But if gaming is to survive, its development costs and consumer costs need to come down. Right now it costs so much to develop some games, that they have to sell 2-3 million copies just to break even. Which is why so many developers on jumping on the Wii bandwagon: it costs 1/3rd (sometimes 1/4th) the cost of developing a 360/PS3 game. Note: these costs get passed on to you!

    Catering to 'casual' gamers is key to major commercial success. I myself am 'core', not 'hardcore'. DVD players, CD players and PCs all have 90%+ penetration rates ( the % at which a product is itegrated into society). Game cosoles have never gotten past 40%. The Wii is the ONLY console capable of changing that.

  • nate1222

    Posted Jan 27, 2008 7:13 am GMT

    Again, not a shock. The Wii rocks. I'm a 360 man at the moment, but Wii is on my radar. As I stated earlier, I may find myself trading my 360 in toward a Wii. I like both consoles' line ups, but as an ADULT gamer I have to balance my hobby with survival issues/bills. The Wii seems to offer more bang per buck. And a good deal of games will have Wii incarnations. I realize that I'll be taking a hit on graphics. But to me, graphics are as good as they NEED to be (from the PS2/XBox/GC generation).

  • neonvzla

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 10:30 pm GMT

    @ Boobyunger.

    Your classmates' opinions =/= world's opinion.

  • BoobyUnger

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 10:09 pm GMT

    honestly this machein sells well but i never hear anyone at my school talk aobut it just ps3 and 360. Guess this only apeals to old people and kids 12 and under or sumthing. They have lost their touch to the teenage population besides asians no offense.

  • lanmanna

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 6:08 pm GMT

    Nintendo rocks.

  • XeroComplex

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 4:50 pm GMT

    Korsair... what do you have against the Wii?
    -----
    Any news on Wii availability? They're sold out everywhere, online and in stores. This is just crazy... I really want Brawl...

    As for 3rd party games... it would be cool if some good Square Enix games came out on it.

  • Kyoku-Ryu1986

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 12:05 pm GMT

    Oh well ...

  • Omega_Wolf89

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 10:42 am GMT

    @Korsair: Say what you want, but the Wii argues for itself; it's easily setting pace to outsell the 360, which was released way earlier.....

    And yes, it's true that nintendo is reaching for the casual crowd, but that's the best way to introduce casuals to some of the more "hardcore" games, and sell more of both types of games....... I guess you could say it's generating its own "hardcore" players......

  • 789shadow

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 9:41 am GMT

    What a surprise.

  • Ash_Korsair

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 3:31 am GMT

    @mariokart64fan wii hardcore? sorry dude even nintendo themselves admit they are attempting to reacht the casual crowd.

    and zelda.....well nintendo stopped making a new zelda ever since the first on the n64. all zelda's since are the same old same old. and whatever they do they can never top link to the past (wich is my fav game ever)

    and the whole perfect dark goldeneye thing.
    best fps? i think not.
    u forget half-life wich owns all fps. will that ever come to wii? no ofcourse not the wii lacks the power for truly epic games. (yes zelda, mario, metroid, might be described as epic but not imo. there are better substitutes out there fro each of em)

  • mariokart64fan

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 2:54 am GMT

    and i ve been a nintendo gamer well all round gamer since and nintend has always done somthing better then the competition for example inventing 3d gaming with snes /n64 and in 1997 reinventing fpses with the first ever 4 player fps that played better then doom ,,, that is goldeneye and in the gc era there was always a great game,, re0- zelda wind waker did i forget mariokart ,,,, and now we got one of the best nintendo systems yet the wii ,,/ds tell me any diiferent then your just like the rest of the halo fanboys but gotldeneye is the best fps and still is to this day i still bust out my n64 with goldeneye/perfect dark or duke nukem 64 at hand ...

  • mariokart64fan

    Posted Jan 26, 2008 2:45 am GMT

    i own over 30 wii games and over 20 vc titles ,,, and over 20 360 titles and 6 ps3 games,,, i also have over 70 gc games over 80 n64 games over 100 ps1 games over 100 snes games over 40 genesis titles 10 dc titles 3 saturn games 4 atari 2600 titles 9 gbc 9 psp over 60 ps2 over 70 xbox over 20 ds titles over 46 gba games over 10 nes games and to finish the icing on the cake i have 5 game gear titles,,, so i practically own every system known to man almost all i need is a master system and some old colecolvision type consoles neo geo etc,,, i have every modern console atleast nes-ps3 the wii is hard core i dont care what any one says in fact i picked up a racing game for only 19,99 it wwas pretty good

  • marito12

    Posted Jan 25, 2008 7:43 pm GMT

    Hopefully they will be able to remedy the Wii shortage

  • Trogeton

    Posted Jan 25, 2008 7:39 pm GMT

    Would have sold more here.. but they had to have that stupid shortage... Im glad I got mine already.. but I had to go through alot of stuff and get it off ebay

  • SHACKR

    Posted Jan 25, 2008 7:21 pm GMT

    the wii is rocking all over the world

  • puppiemaster

    Posted Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm GMT

    I have 24 Wii games and over 30 Virtual console titles, I play my Wii loads, I also have over 50 360 titles and I'm playing COD4, Mass Effect, Orange Box and Halo 3 at the Mo on that, I also have 10 PS3 titles, I'm more hardcore than most gamers and the Wii is HARDCORE, those than disagree are just Fanboys!!!

  • Papo_2_

    Posted Jan 25, 2008 11:16 am GMT

    Go nintendo!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Nashpop

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 3:08 pm GMT

    so what comes bundled with the Wii in Japan?

  • PrimusStream

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 2:31 pm GMT

    The Wii rules!!!

  • acidrain1976

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 10:57 am GMT

    Excellent work, Nintendo. Aw yeah.

  • T-bone123

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 9:51 am GMT

    I'm surprised that Wii Sports doesn't come with the Wii in Japan.

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 6:22 am GMT

    nintendokid - "we're not stoopid, dude. - the rest of us whom have a brain (I question if you do), we are thinking 'Ok, there is something seriously flawed here...'"

    But see you are lacking understanding somewhere. What is flawed is your thinking. The thinking a game must be inaccessible to all but the few 'hardcore' to be enjoyable and 'not casual'. Have you seen the guy that plays Wii Play shooting and scores 900+ in one round? How about those that score all 'XS' ranks in Trauma Center? These examples prove it's not the game that is casual, it's the players. There are gamers that require complexity to make them feel like 'they have a brain' opposed to those that have a brain and creativity enough to make everything they play and like a hardcore game. This is what you fail to get... and because you lack the ability for deep thought and creativity I don't think you will ever get it. The wii is accessible to all and as 'hardcore' or 'casual' as the player wants it.

  • _Cab0ose87_

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 3:58 am GMT

    "Look at sales figures of the Casual's Wii-Play, Wii-sports and Wii-Fit compared to the Hardcore's Super Mario Galaxy. It just shows why Nintendo is really interested in the casual market."

    well because there's tons of money to be made.. hell if it keeps Nintendo in the market long enough for my future kids to hopefully experience, why the **** not?

  • UnreaLuigi

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 3:25 am GMT

    wow 5 million in just 1 year!? thats incredible!

  • razu_gamer

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 2:37 am GMT

    Well lets say that in another 2 months Galaxy will reach around 1 million in Japan. If we approximate, we can say that every 1 out of 5 Wii owners has Galaxy. This is not bad at all. The ration should be higher in USA and EU maybe 3 out of every 10.

    If you compare it with lets say God Of War which sold 2 million in US. Lets approximate that to 4 million including EU/AUS.

    As the PS2 sold 120 million worldwide, we can say that every 4 out of 120 has God Of War. Now to sell 4 million for an install base of 120 million seems pretty weak to SMG where it is selling to 1 per 5.

    This should hush those who think SMG flopped.

  • CrushedGroove

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 12:21 am GMT

    Why has gaming become so political and gamers become so biased? I remember growing up with my Super Nintendo, and my best friend had a Genesis. We never argued about which was better, we would actually take turns going to each others' houses and playing games. I owned a Nintendo, but I loved Sonic, and he loved Mario despite owning a Sega. Why is it so important to bash someone else's system? Does feeling like you have the best system somehow make you feel better about yourself? It seems the bigger the gaming industry gets, the uglier it becomes. I just want to play fun games and enjoy myself, I don't care what system they are on. The Wii is selling like hotcakes, good for Nintendo, but how does that affect us as long as games continue to come out that we all enjoy on our respective systems? (Unless you happen to be a stockholder.) I can assure you that having different consoles to choose from is far better than if there were just one, because then they wouldn't have to try at all. Sorry for sounding preachy, but let's just play our games and leave the politics to the corporations. Basically...can't we all just get along?

  • onique

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 12:12 am GMT

    I have 13 Wii games, The ones that are still played alot (lets say within the last month at least)

    Battalion Wars II, DBZ : BT3, LoZ: TP, Metal Slug Anthology, Metroid Prime 3, RE : UC, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, Victorious Boxers Revolution.

    I'm not the only one playing these, but thats to be expected because I mastered TP months ago as well as beaten SPM. So not all wii owners leave there systems alone. I didn't Count Wii Sports up there, but it's played here all the time, and I also spent time STILL on my ps2 and much on my 360. I have 120 hours on Oblivion alone ;-; AND I love the pc version more....

  • bunyipbrown

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 11:00 pm GMT

    wow im somewhat surprised. From my experience almost all wii owners dont really any more games other than wii sports. Come to think of it this does make sense, considering nintendo's breaking into the casual market. People who havnt played mario or zelda arent likely to buy it because they dont know what its about. But when you see something like wii sports for example, its easy to pick up.

  • xgalacticax

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 10:42 pm GMT

    Look at sales figures of the Casual's Wii-Play, Wii-sports and Wii-Fit compared to the Hardcore's Super Mario Galaxy. It just shows why Nintendo is really interested in the casual market.

  • p00phead

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:56 pm GMT

    you know i might just buy a wii but not yet why there isn't much mature rated games avaliable

  • Padrepride

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:31 pm GMT

    I love Nintendo. Wouldn't you like to see a hockey or soccer game for the wii. That would make me get some exercise!

  • cfamgcn

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 8:04 pm GMT

    I hope more 3rd party games (good, of course) come to the system this 2008...

  • Jshaw71

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 7:55 pm GMT

    in my eyes quite well is keeping systems in stock and gamers short of going mad looking everywhere for a friggin system, but that's just me

  • nintendave86

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 7:46 pm GMT

    wow go nintendo!

  • bladex-983

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 7:03 pm GMT

    wow good job nintendo...

  • skyline7284

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 6:14 pm GMT

    Galaxy is behind Wii Fit and Wii Play? wtf?

  • elozl

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 5:58 pm GMT

    to be expected, but well, i hope that with this we can all get benefits

  • Pigs_Fly

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 5:31 pm GMT

    Yay~ Wii's the only gaming system I have, and I don't need anything else!

  • Directions2

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 5:28 pm GMT

    @ Darth: King was just responding to Nintendokid's proposition that we post how many games we have for the wii and how much we play it.

  • dz99ls

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 5:17 pm GMT

    Way to go big N

  • Helghast_Merc

    Posted Jan 23, 2008 4:51 pm GMT

    Good for Nintendo. Their hard work and effort to bring out a revolutionary system has paid off.

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