How does Wii U First Week Sales Compare to Other Consoles?

Michael De Sua:

In an interview with CNET, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that the Nintendo Wii U sold upwards of 400,000 units during its launch week and that it is pretty much entirely sold out of retail. This must be promising news for Nintendo as they have sold everything they produced for the first week, but how does this compare to the first week sales of other consoles in North America?

[mrbojingles]

It sold out of stock and people are comparing it. Why compare it? If it's sold out then it shouldn't be compared to anything else since it can't exceed X amount of units sold due to, y'know selling out.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

It's better to compare to wii.

http://kotaku.com/217491/ni...

@below ok dude don't be so hurt. I am sorry I said that... WiiU for give me?

[mrbojingles]

Why compare it? It's sold out. If it's sold out than there is no logical way for it to match other console's sales.

[Welshy]

People REALLY think these devices, or any major device for that matter, genuinely has no stock on release? Give me a break, they have freeking TONNES of them and say they are "sold out" or deliver in waves to keep demand high, where is the rush if Nintendo said "Chill guys! we made 10 million of them!"...

Here's the perfect video to show my point

[darthv72]

It is sold out in some places and in stock in others. It depends on where you are. I think we can agree on that.

A comparison to other platforms, not really a viable way to gauge its success. I mean we could use another example of the ps3 vs the ps2.

Neither are correct comparatives but regardless of the comparison...the unit has sold and will continue to do so to those that are wanting one.

[mrbojingles]

That statement came across as "hurt" to you?

[Captain Qwark 9]

well to be fair, every console sells out of stock on a regular basis for the first 3-6 months typically. no point in comparing until its first year on the market has finished

[keabrown79]

The problem is that it "isn't" sold out of stock.. Right now I can drive to Wal-Mart, Target, or Toys'r'us and buy one. I live downtown Indianapolis

[rainslacker]

It isn't sold out here either, and I live in outside Raleigh, NC. There's plenty of people here with money and not enough stuff to spend it on.

[lodossrage]

THAT comment was extremely uncalled for.

It never ceases to amaze me how people here resort to personal attacks when others don't share their opinions.

[tonywood]

True...I walked into a gamestop in new jersey and got a deluxe u with no problem. Also, they have 4 other deluxe and 12 white systems.

[jbgamer]

I live in Indianapolis and i have not seen any. I went to wal mart saw 1 wii u, came back 30 mins it was gone so sir I am calling you out i live in downtown indianapolis show me the proof. All of you.

[OSIRUSSS]

Really? I live in Indy too I know Target on W38th is sold out. JB no one lives in Downtown Indy LOL

[keabrown79]

I live up on 79th and Michigan near Pike High School. I bought mine the day it came out and I love it but that doesn't change the fact that yesterday the wal-mart on 86th had a basic, the target on Michigan had 1 basic and 1 deluxe and Toy's R Us in near castleton square mall had a couple as well. Like I said.. I love the system. No the stores are not overfilled with stock but that's on Nintendo. They are the king of artificial shortages after all. In any case I need me some ZombiU friends, especially if your from indy lol

[Heavenly King]

STFU!

[showtimefolks]

all i know is bunch are being sold on ebay for regular price. so while it did sell out in stores like all nintendo consoles, its not as big as people who wanted to buy than make 2-3 times more

mrbojingles

this is age on internet everything will be compared to something else deal with it. compare wii-u sales to ps3,xbox360 IMO since there is not ps4 or xbox720 yet.

[punisher99]

According to the people who are hitting the agree/disagree buttons. You are wrong. lol

[lilbrat23]

The system seems like it sold out because Nintendo things they are slick. Many sores only got 5-10 consoles in stock. My local best buy only got 5 systems. So yeah it seems like they sold out to make uneducated consumers want it even more.

[kupomogli]

It's not sold out, though. I was at Walmart yesterday, Sunday, two days after the biggest sales day of the year, and there were Wii Us available. Atleast one of each model.

Reggie wants people to think it's sold out and it's so difficult to get their hands on one so as soon as they see one they'll buy it. People always want something that's desirable, but him saying it's sold out is a lie.

Checking Walmart.com right now, the 32GB model is showing available in all 13 stores in a range of 50 miles from my zip code.

[oONinjavitiSOo]

Nintendo did the same thing with the wii. Sending out limited amounts to stores trying to build hype. It worked for the wii will it work for the wiiu?

[Bobby Kotex]

It's not sold out, but it is marked up online for the suckers who want one.

[geddesmond]

News flash, all consols launch with so called limited stock and sell out so whats your point exactly.

[Megaton]

Selling out isn't a measure of anything other than how few units Nintendo shipped.

[abzdine]

i hope PS4 will be priced like Wii U from day one because i'm not ready to pay 600€ like i did in 07.

[Cupid_Viper_3]

I hear you on that, but that's also the reason why sony continues to provide support for their older consoles.

I don't want the PS4 to only be a slight upgrade from the PS3. I want something that is substantially better than the PS3, so if it has to be $600.00 so be it. The people who can't afford it will stick with their PS3/Xbox360/PSVita/Wii U until they can afford it.

[linkratos]

Ideally this would be great, but I don't think Sony can afford to let most people stay with their old consoles for too long. And they can't really sell for a huge loss again. I'm actually not sure what they're gonna do. i don't see what's so bad about a not so big upgrade, if it can end with the type of library the PS2 had that would be a much bigger success in my eyes than the PS3.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

What an inane comment. Having a 600 dollar console again would ruin Sony. It almost killed them with the PS3 and you want another one? That's crazy talk.

I bought a Ps3 day one. 600 dollars for the console was too much.

[millzy102]

the only way for ps4 to be substantialy be better than ps3 is top the line pc components and that is not happening. people forget what console gaming is intended for, a cheap entry level into gaming for those who can't afford gaming PC's this is what consoles where invented for. if consoles cost more than 400 there's no value in them and your better of saving up a couple more hundred and getting a mid range pc and upgrade in few years. pc always out performs consoles and that is the end of it

[LOGICWINS]

Expect it to be $399.

[torchic]

I honestly think $450 for a base model.

[Heavenly King]

$450 would be the premium model. I think XD

[deletingthis34675334]

I doubt the PS4 will be priced anywhere under 400 especially if the hardware will be a significant improvement over the Wii U. Sony MIGHT release a higher end model with a bigger hard drive and more features for another hundred dollars. I think Sony will price their console competitively with MS more than they would Nintendo given the Wii U will no doubt be the weakest console of this new generation.

[LOGICWINS]

Sony will wait for hardware parts to become cheaper so that they don't have to launch at an outrageous price. Anything over $400 for gaming console these days is crazy.

[lilbroRx]

I'll never understand the logic behind people who respond to news about a given console only to talk about a different one.

Unless you want the PS3 to have around the same performance as the Wii U then it is going to be a good few hundred dollars higher.

[zebramocha]

Sony could put a radeon 7770 gpu in the ps4 it cost 130 and runs bf3 @1080p to 30-40 fps on ultra and the ps4 is rumored to include an apu that probably could help the gpu.

[evilbart]

But by the time you buy an external hard drive and wii motes pro controller etc which are essentially needed for the full expeirience it's close to €600 anyway just saying

[1upgamer99]

The only thing I had to buy was pro-controller. I already had 3 Wii Remote plus controllers. And an extra hard drive. Any Hard Drive under 3 terabytes will work. You can pick up a Terabyte Hard drive for $99 on EBay and just be done with it. Instead of spending $50 on a 250MB hard drive for Xbox360.

[Deku-Johnny]

If the PS4 is as stupidly more powerful than the Wii U as a lot of people think it will be it'll have to be at least twice as pricey.

[Qrphe]

I hope all of you realize the only reason why the PS3 was SO expensive was due to the blu-ray drive.

And btw, there was a $500 PS3 model just like there was a $300 360. And both had high-end GPUs.

[tonywood]

I think ps4 will be $399 for one model...and $449 for another. They won't make the same mistake twice. Also, making the ps3 more efficiently will should help with ps4. (I love games..got everything from old to new)

[jbgamer]

Yeah i did not like how sony did that to their loyal fans. But the fans a lot of them want the PS4 to perform like a super computer, and if it did it would be $600 again so i think sony should just release it, and not price it too high.

[dark-hollow]

We can't predict how the Wii u will be doing in the future from these numbers alone.

The gamcube in the first week sold 500000 unit in the first week but it lifetime sales were very miserable.

The ps3/Xbox 360 sold about 400000 unit in the first week and both going strong over the 70 million mark.

[iamnsuperman]

I agree first week sales really do not show anything unless they are selling a few thousands or managed to produce millions and they sold them all. Its the first few monthly sales there after which is really telling. Apart from than it is a nice amount sold.

[Grimhammer00]

The desperation of buyers of the Wii who couldn't get one is nowhere to be found for the WiiU.

That's the point. And it's not sold out. That's lies. I can go right now to my local Walmart. Their right behind the glass.

Reggie says that wii sold 300k units first week...lies.
It was 600k. So WiiU is 200k behind.

Reggie says blops2 is better looking on the WiiU.
Lies....screen tearing, 8fps is single player, color saturation (subjective), AA.....looks no better than 360; and under performs big time compared to 360.

[Deku-Johnny]

It does look better on Wii U actually, the shading, lighting and textures are quite a bit better on it.

[memots]

So we are comparing turd with another turd now?

Look at where the peanut and the piece of corn on this one , check out how it sticks out on this one. I think i see a pixel on that one, and this one is way to brown...

[linkratos]

Well it is sold out in some places. So it could have sold more, but there are also plenty of people who can't get their hands on one still. It seems to depend on your location.

[KruLLit]

people are still bitching about graphics? Didn't people learn from the ps3 launch that it doesnt matter?

Sure, the graphic in those games were okay but holy shit they were bad!
If you want graphics get a PC...

[younghavok]

On the Blops2 note it actually does look better on Wii U. This is coming from an avid CoD player on the 360. I own both versions is the Wii U is noticably better. And the sales thing is a gray area, he could just be talking about the US, or he could be talking about canada and mexico as well. Its easy to spin and not be wrong, its kind of a politician move

[DivineAssault]

wii u will not be anywhere near as successful as wii.. It will prolly sell like N64 did

[linkratos]

There's a pretty huge gap between the sales of the Wii and N64. The PS3 and 360 were also not anywhere as successful as the Wii, but I would still wouldn't call those failures (well at least not the 360). I expect the Wii to sell around 70-80 mil lifetime.

[jbgamer]

No it will sell a lot more then the N64 sorry just will, a lot more 3rd party support, and appeal to casual and hardcore gamers will make sure of that i mean when sony sold 150 million we all knew that those people would not dry up, so sorry the nearly 100 million people who bought a wii are not gonna go poof ok?

[MadMax]

First console launch in years that i could care less about. I was more hyped for the Wii, and i barely get any mileage out of it.

[Jihaad_cpt]

You mean couldn't care less about don't you?

[TheGrimReaper]

@MadMax:

1. I am german and even I know "I could care less" is 'wrong'. Well a native speaker should know better, shouldn't he? http://grammar.quickanddirt...

2. I am an atheist and maybe that is the reason why I have informed myself about multiple religions several years ago.
Jihaad could be his real name (I had a friend back in elementary school whose name was Jihaad).
And Jihad itself doesn't mean anything evil, so there is no reason to ban him or call him a "sonofabitch" (maybe "grammar nazi" ;))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Jihaad_cpt has only 1 bubble that's why I responded.
Less hate and more mutual understanding.

EDIT: added sources

[Gazondaily]

I couldn't care less is the correct statement so next time, stop and think before you go on a silly immature rant which only serves to make you look like a complete idiot.

Seriously, grow up.

[Firebird360]

The wiiu is really a nice console with a lot of nice features. I honestly don't know why people seam to hate it with a passion. I'm happy with my purchase and currently enjoying zombiu!

[rezzah]

what others think of the system shouldn't matter to you when you enjoy it as it is.

Of course this doesn't mean you should dismiss the highs and lows of the product you own.

[Grimhammer00]

I've played el Shaddai, binary domain, lollipop chainsaw....you could say I enjoy games many don't. And I understand that what I like isn't true for others. But...

WiiU is not going to survive meaningfully vs ps720.
Both those systems only need to open the CPU bottleneck wiiu suffers from and add ram that isn't 7yrs old. That's it. That'll be enough to make 3rd party games unworkable on wiiu.

I understand fanbois - it's ok to be passionate. But try to see the forest through the trees.

There's no climate that'll support $400+ for new consoles. Not in the sales qtys that console makers need to make bank. Wiiu price is too high for what it is. But is about right for ps720.

I don't expect ps720 to be huge difference from consoles today. But they will be performance issues that the wiiu architecture just can't handle.

[rezzah]

Same here! i love those games, beat them out last month.

Btw that saying of seeing the forest through the trees doesn't make sense. No on can see a forest because it doesn't exists.

[Realplaya]

fanboy much. If the Wii U is as you say pricy for what it is the next box and ps4 will be the same. So if they saell lets say 200,000 there first week out will you come back and declare the wii u king?

You are an internet anylist in the purest of forms speaking of things you know nothing of.

[millzy102]

the reason most fanboys are hating Nintendo is because they gotta wait over a year for a new console. I highly doubt its a weak as people say or want to believe.

main complaint 1 CPU IS RUBBISH, but every dev apart from 1 who has said this are not developing on it. devs that are developing on it, gearbox, Ubisoft, 5thcell say it is powerful, infact Brian burleson (gearbox game producer) said the Wii u is a powerful,powerful machine. why emphisise power twice if its weak. I doubt he'll do that. also michel ancel (rayman creator) said The Wii u is surprisingly powerful. so there's 2 reputable companies working on it. and I will bet money on Ubisoft having a new Xbox or ps dev kit to compare to. also the Wii u has a seprate CPU for os and sound proccessor and gpgpu with aparently loads of edram, if devs throw everything at CPU instead deciding tasks between CPU, gpgpu and sound proccessor they are going to run into trouble.

second complaint. Ram speed is only 12gb/s. ok fine show me a dev complaining about ram speed. infact I have the opposite here is a link on another dev team complimenting ram speed and how it avoids bottlenecking. I know haters are not going to read this but as they don't like being proven wrong by people working on the system.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/1...

I know I probably sound like a Nintendo fanboy but I'm not I'm a multiplatform gamer and it annoys me that people only listen to negitives and neglect everything else.

[Yodagamer]

I really don't know where anybody got the 12 gb/s the only person who said that was on a forum and it blew up. Plus even if you went by what the part number said many developers have said that it's been modified to be faster and efficient.

[chukamachine]

The PS3 and Xbox 360 are neck in neck by selling 64 and 67 million consoles respectively.

Huh?

Sony have already stated 70million sales of PS3.

As for WII U, 40million max.

Worldwide: 32.9 million - N64

Worldwide: 21.74 million - GAMECUBE

Worldwide 49.10 million - SNES.

Wii was a fluke, because of the control scheme and probably got some new customers for Nintendo.

SNES was to long ago for anyone to care about.

N64 + new sales from wii customers and i'm guessing 40million max for wii u.

[Drainage]

neck and neck ? The Ps3 is down 3 million. lol. Coming in 3rd place in the console race. Also , you are calling a fluke on something that was designed and produced to sell, and it sold. So how was that a fluke? thats like saying Apple products are a fluke. Lmao Nintendo #1 Wii and #1 Ds and #1 3DS and soon #1 Wii U

[Heavenly King]

according to VGCHARTZ? LMAO!

[Dasteru]

That is just because Nintendo has gained a cult following, same as Apple, same as CoD and various others. They blindly buy anything with the name tag on it, assuming that just because it comes from Nintendo or other said company that it has to be the best.

As for the PS3 being in third place, that depends on your point of view.

1: 1 year later to launch (360 already had 10m sold by the time the PS3 launched)

2: $200 higher initial cost

3: Supposedly no good games for first couple years

4: over 30% fail rate for 360 first couple years, same people buying new consoles as replacement. Factors into total sales.

And yet the PS3 is still only 3m behind at a 70m total sales mark.

All factors considered, time for time the PS3 has completely destroyed the 360.

P.S. I don't dislike Nintendo nor am i a Sony fanboy, The SNES is actually still my all time favorite console and i own every video game system since the NES, including a PS3, 360, Wii, and a $2k custom PC. If anything im a PC fanboy. Just making note of the contributing factors that people seem to be forgetting.

[Drekken]

What race? What are you comparing? Are you really saying 3 million more sales of consoles replacing broken units constitutes a win for a console when the competition clearly has more games, more exclusives, more features??

You children really need lessons in critical thinking. Get your heads out of your anus and use your brain. I bet you voted Obama.

[Realplaya]

So what do you call those who blindly bought a ps3 or xbox? I never bought an x box and sold my ps3 and wii for a wii u. I love the fact that this community only makes up .2 percent of the world because the video game hate on here is crazy.

It's like comparing Kobe to MJ yep Kobe is no MJ but he'll still be in the hall of fame at the end of his career.

[ApexHell]

is it sold out or is nintendo withholding shipments again

[kupomogli]

They're probably withholding shipments and it still isn't sold out.

[V0LT]

They should have went with a name other than Wii U. It almost comes off as an addon to the Wii at glance.

[younghavok]

I dont think Nintendo has anything to worry about sales wise. The WiiU is a great value and everybody I know that has seen it and gone hands on wants one. I payed 380 for the console and Blops 2 with tax included. Have a huge catalog of Wii games to play on it, excellent browser, all my Wii accesories work on it so I didn't need to buy an extra controller, the gamepad has made gaming more comfortable for me, and Miiverse is a revolution in itself for console gaming, plus I dont have to pay to play online. It truly is a great system, why it gets so much hate is beyond me. If you like it great, if not why attack it? But then again... how could you not like a system? Did it rape your mother like tobacco on Family Guy? I just dont get it.

[fredrikpedersen]

GUYS, guys. It's not even out in most of Europe yet.

[millzy102]

its not out in Europe at all yet or anywhere else yet only north America.

[R_aVe_N]

The Wii U did not sell out here in my area the shelves are still full even during Black Friday they did not sell at all. My town has two Wal-Marts, a Target, Best Buy, and like 6 different games stores and they all had plenty of stock.

[WiCK3D]

looks really good but a bit pricey :(
And I think they could of made the miis a bit better.

http://www.post-zone.co.uk - new community forum join today please.

[Smokingunz]

Well thats good news for nintendo and the gaming industry as a whole.this shows that there is a strong interests in consoles as a whole