Wii Fit muscles to top of UK charts
Nintendo's exercise-based game leaves the competition for dead as it assumes the top position.
2008 is shaping up to be a very healthy year indeed for Nintendo. The company recently announced record financial results, and saw Mario Kart Wii race to the top of the charts after its recent European release. Today, Nintendo has seen its latest product, Wii Fit, not just hit the top of the UK's all-formats sales chart, but also become the sixth-fastest-selling games debut ever in the country.
Wii Fit is the latest extension of Nintendo's strategy to target the mass market, following DS games such as Brain Training (Brain Age in the US) and Sight Training (Flash Focus in the US). Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto told The Sunday Times recently that, "People say video games are a waste of time and are bad for your brain and for your health. We wanted to create something to answer that." Wii Fit, using the new, included balance-board peripheral, tracks each player's weight, and provides a multitude of activities designed to be a part of a daily exercise regime.
Despite the hype surrounding the release of Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 today, Wii Fit has racked up impressive sales in the four days since its UK release. According to UK sales body Chart-Track, Wii Fit was bought by 10 percent of Wii owners, and accounted for over half of the Wii software sold in the past week. Its UK takings of £16.3 million make it the third-largest game launch by value, behind only Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004 and Halo 3 last year. Whether Wii Fit can hold on to the top spot in the face of GTAIV will be revealed in next week's chart.
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29 Comments
It can't hold on because there aren't any to buy! Everywhere has sold out.
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I think wii fit will do fine here in the US as well, really looking forward to it's release.
But yeah, GTA4 will take it's UK spot most likely, there is just a good amount of hype following it, plus it's a quality game.
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Couldn't find one anywhere in Belgium. Totally sold out!
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It's just to bad the Wii Fit isn't release until May 21 in North America, I personally don't like GTA series. But im sure the Wii Fit once hits in NA it will sell out within the week of the release.
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It will be impressive to see how GTA4 sales compare to Wii Fit sales. It will be like, the gamer vs. the non-gamer. I look forward to the results.
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Bought the game on launch day, have been exercising daily, I ache all over! It has such incredible variety in the exercises, is incredible fun and is great motivation to exercise. I've been saying "I'll start exercising again" for months now but Wii Fit has really given me the push that I needed and I can feel it paying off each day. I can see this wont be popular with fat gamers but I can understand that. It was meant for normal people to incoporate into their lives, not for gamers to complete.
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I got Wii Fit on launch day last Friday, and I must say I'm really impressed with the quality of the product. The balance board is a solid piece of hardware, and they put a lot of effort into the software. I did not expect it to be so feature rich. I do yoga exercises every morning!
There is nothing casual about Wii Fit. This is hardcore. Different audience maybe, but definitely hardcore.
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my wife doesn't like video games but she wanted a wii fit for her birthday! it isn't my type of game but the yoga looks good and the sking mit be fun.
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Wii Fit might be possibly out sell the so called perfect "Grand Theft Auto 4.
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Im Really suprised Wii fit is actually that good. So this can appeal to everyone. Even I'm going to get this seeing that it sold really well in Europe.
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£16.3 Million? Wow. I mean, yeah, you could argue it only took that much in because each copy is £70 (with a balance board), but by my calculations, thats still about 2.33 million copies sold of Wii Fit.
Also, it being the 6th fastest game will bump Mario Kart Wii to 9th fastest selling game.
Of course, after this week, GTA4 will be the fastest selling, which will bump Wii Fit to 7th, and Mario Kart Wii to 10th.
Anyone else notice how weird it is 3 of UK's fastest selling games were released not only in the same month, but within 3 and a half weeks of each other?
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Okay, with GTA4 being one of the most anticipated games this year (or maybe even... ever) it will almost unfailingly become more popular than Wii Fit by the end or the week.
Um... out of curiosity, did they release Wii Fit over here in the US? I haven't heard anything about it.
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It's crazy it's sold out absolutely everywhere. There were people asking for it in every shop I went into. It would have been really interesting to see how many could of sold if nintendo had anticipated such a high demand. But still yep GTAIV will take the top spot next week, but congrates nintendo you did really well the last three weeks with MKW and wii fit.
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Im guessing ctg867 isnt a big fan of exercise lol... and having fun for that matter.
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Nice. Good to see that it's becoming popular outside of Japan, too.
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Wii Fit, prepare to be clobbered by GTA IV!
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GTA4 will be number next week. I am fairly confident.
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I really dont see this being Number 1 for long, GTA4 is selling like crazy. Been selling them since the late night launch i done lastnight, the amount of copys that have sold in Game is crazy. GTA4 will be top very soon.
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Looks like it'll either be the brilliant GTA4 taking the number one spot next week or the casual, healthy, mass-market non-game keeping a steady lead. It's hardcore versus casual in the biggest way possible (and Wii vs. PS360 in a way as well).
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@foxpro lol,you never know nintendo might help fight obesity.Imagine a stereotypical over-weight WOW player using wii-fit.
This user app will most likely beat GTA IV.Its a shame though no develop wants to invest long term in the wii while ps360 get million dollar long term deals.hopefully we will see some nice wii titles in e3.
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Yey, Wii Fit rocks! It blatently won't be able to compete with GTA, but it's still done really well.
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Interesting information. Look forward to future development.
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Mii fit with out Wii fit. If they is some other games coming out for it. I might get Wii Fit...
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Great! I didn't expect less from Wii fit...however, I rcognize the great work in GTA 4...it's kinda sad not have it on Wii
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GTA'll pound it but still, impressive stuff from Ninty, especially considering the heightened price.
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yay nintendo, but GTA IV will take the top spot of course
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