Analysis: Xbox 360 poised to pass Wii in US sales by year’s end

It's practically conventional wisdom at this point that the Wii has been the best-selling system of this console generation, overall. By sustaining retail sellouts for months after launch and routinely selling millions of consoles every holiday season, the Wii built up what was a seemingly insurmountable lead in the American gaming hardware market, judged purely on raw hardware sales (software sales and hours of play are different matters, of course).

[EasilyTheBest]

Well done Microsoft...

[Donnieboi]

It was the deceitful advertising that fooled casuals into thinking that COD and sports games were exclusive or better (read: MS paid for COD to get DLC early) versions.

Trust me, it didn't sell well because it had plenty of good exclusives or new IP's in the last four years (because it definitely didn't). In the rest of the world, 360 isn't selling so well, probably because the rest of the world (outside of the U.S.) is not as easily deceived.

[HammadTheBeast]

Not to mention hundreds of thousands of RROD consoles. And no, they weren't reimbursed for free until 3 years into the consoles cycle, and even then, MS counted refurbished ones as sales.

[Gazondaily]

@Donnieboi

So you've basically attributed the success of the 360 in the USA to the so-called stupidity of Americans?

Wow..... There's fanboy logic and then there's just sheer stupidity. Is it really hard for you to accept the fact that the 360 was and still is a great console for many people?

[Cmk0121]

asian market despises the xbox 360 regardless of qaulity they will never buy it. and that sounds like some ole America hatred right there LOL, Americans are easily dec3eived LOL. its the number one selling console in the UK as well, as well as about to become the number one selling console of all time in UK over the ps2 which sold 10 million units there.It sells well because its online service craps on the competition, sony throws free games to at its subs to make up for lack of cross game chat and good servers. its xbox hate nation, funny thing is everyone is playing up to the media, all about policies not content, x1 was better at e3 than the competition they just are jackasses and have horrible marketing and killed themselves with the drm stuff which has since been removed. your a fool if you think sony didnt have similar policies and didnt decide to change them after the backlash, sony outright said they used that backlash to inform them on what to do. people are fools tehy think sony is consumer friendly not out to make a profit, that was the argument with xbl being required for online play, now sony does it and nobody says a word. ill be getting both, please folks stop being sheep to the media its pitiful

[darthv72]

"asian market despises the xbox 360 regardless of qaulity they will never buy it. and that sounds like some ole America hatred right there LOL"

That's because they are too busy buying Apple products and eating at McDonalds over there.

How about you switch gears and look more at "appeal" than "America hatred". It obviously does not appeal to the asian consumer on the same level as DS or wii/ps3 games do. They like quirky titles that the 360 just doesnt have in the same context as other platforms.

They like American products and services just fine but they like them more if they appeal to their interests.

[AAWELLS09]

Oh thanks for the lesson as we all needed it. You wouldnt want us to believe different. Will you be going to bat for Sony in the next thread? btw you're incredibly smart.

[Rusty515]

Lmfao. Im a Sony fan myself, but the amount of Sony drones on here is hilarious. They're Just downvoting your comment for nothing.

[YNWA96]

Fair play to ya Rusty. I own both current Gen, but prefer most of my games on 360. If MS gave free money to everyone, I am sure they would find something wrong with it. Maybe they would be upset it was US dollar and not Euros or something... some people never happy, hope they are not like that in general.... or would be very miserable...

[Rusty515]

@Gman0174: Yeah it's just that these fanboys never give props when props should be given. I don't have a 360, nor do I want one. But I still give credit where it's due.

[vikingland1]

It matters to Sony and that's a fact. MS took a big bite out of Sony's shares so it does matter. And I am also a fan of Sony. I like the 360 also. Is that bad?

[thorstein]

Fair argument. However, much of the "gaming" sites are pro Xbox and N4G is one of the few pro SONY independent sites. Gamefaqs is purely XbotsRUs.

[dantesparda]

Whats the point of this article? What matters the most is who sold more worldwide anyways. And the Wii still has the 360 beat. So what, now we are gonna act like the US and UK are the only 2 countries that matter and screw the rest of the world? So what, the 360 won because it outsold it in the US & UK? So misleading! And funny once the rest of the world is factored in, the 360 ends up selling the least

[slugg]

Why is it who sold more worldwide that is important? I don't live "worldwide" so what sells in Japan and Europe doesn't mean much to me. As long as the games and services I want are available to me on my console of choice, I'm happy.

[dantesparda]

I didnt mean it as whoever sells the most worldwide is the best for you, but they are trying to make a very stupid point, to try and make the 360 look better. It would be like losing the fight big time, but this site just pointing out the one or two punches you got in.

[Mounce]

Well, they certainly aren't counting all the faulty 360's that broke down during the days of the 40%+ failure rate and the many millions who had to replace and buy a new 360, 2 to 5 times.

So - I'd wait til they're 5-10 million above Wii before it HONESTLY passes Wii at least.

[EVILDEAD360]

UK and Now the US.

It just shows how impressive the 360 run was this gen despite Japan.

Will be interesting to see how it goes down this gen.

Evil

[Donnieboi]

Japan, and the rest of the entire world. US and UK as the most 360 advertising. Yet 360 had very few exclusives and new IP's, and the least amount of variety in genre's (like JRPG's, RTS, free to play, or anything that isn't a western shooter) in the last few years

[IcicleTrepan]

the average person is probably not interested in JRPGs. Personally, I bought a PS3 just for those because I couldn't get most of them on my 360.

[HammadTheBeast]

UK and US only. Congrats to MS for these two regions, two of the biggest in gaming.

Next Gen, will be interesting.

[Mikefizzled]

Its a shame because there was brilliant Japanese 360 exclusives RPG's like Infinite Undiscovery, Lost Odyssey then bullet hell games like Akai Katana, Deathsmiles and DoDonPachi. Hell Monster Hunter Frontier didn't convince the Japanese to buy the 360.

[SoapShoes]

PS3 will probably pass the Wii in Europe this or next year too. It's only 2.5 million behind in Europe.

[DEEBO]

lol(MS) i beat you in the U.S.,(nintendo)yeah get back to me when you sell 100 million or win a generation or beat sony.MS fanboys love their chevy consoles.

[no_more_trolling]

you dumb people and your brand loyalties
its just a frikking piece of electronic

grow up

[YNWA96]

Bubble for you, no more trolling... perfectly said....

[vikingland1]

Well Jack tretton himself said there are over 200,000 gamers in the U.S. alone so that is quite a big deal.

[AAWELLS09]

Grow up kid, you're embarrassing us.

[Sm00thNinja]

Wow that's impressive!!! And of course nothing can be said positive about the Xbox. Well done Microsoft. From 20 million Xbox units sold to 77+ million with the 360. They've imposed their will on the industry

[DragonKnight]

So the 360 is on track to outsell in one region a console that doesn't sell anymore. Let's throw a parade.

[MikeMyers]

How about simply giving them credit for selling almost 80 million units in such a hard market to compete in? North America is also the largest region for overall console sales.

The Xbox 360 also started off at $399 for the preferred system and it is now $199. So in almost 8 years they are still selling a $200 console without many price drops. All while some thought it would end up like the original Xbox only lasting about 4 years and developers are still supporting the Xbox 360. Japan is also a region that will never embrace the Xbox brand.

But i guess it's in some people best interest to make sure they never say anything positive about the Xbox because of hidden agendas.

[DragonKnight]

You know the drill Mike. You know the only condition upon which I'll actually respond to you. You waste both of our time in posting your inane comments until you answer the question.

Anything I had to say about the topic, and to anyone but you about the topic, is in my comment. As for you, like I said, you know the drill.

[Cmk0121]

MS is beating sony worldwide you did see that right... by 900,000 console. 75.9 to 75 worldwide

[socks]

These are old. Reports came out in December and January and Sony took over WW. Even the Xbox homer Vgchartz confirms it.

Try to think next time so you dont look like an idiot.

[kenshiro100]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[josephayal]

the Wii is dead long time ago

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Strong second place globally, even without the support of Japan.

[Belking]

Stop gagging and swallow that one fanboys....lol