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50 Million Wiis Shipped

Rob Crossley's picture

By Rob Crossley

March 25, 2009

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[Update] During his keynote at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that Nintendo has now sold over 50 million Wiis, meaning that an even larger number of units have been shipped worldwide. Original article follows.

Nintendo’s Wii console will have shipped its fifty millionth unit by the end of the Month.

Though the Kyoto-based firm has not made the news official yet, numerous analysts and media outlets are unanimous that the milestone has been reached.

Nintendo had stated in its previous quarterly financial report that some 45 million Wii systems had been shipped by the end of 2008.

Edge’s January NPD report saw the Wii shift 679,000 units during the month across North America, with a further 753,000 units sold in February. Edge’s coverage of hardware sales Japan shows that the Wii has accumulated sales of 234,000 units so far this year (354,367 units if the week ending Jan 4 is included.)

Early in March, AMD announced that it had shipped its fifty millionth custom ATI-developed Wii graphics chip.

The Wii is set to become the fastest console to reach the 50 million mark, passing the milestone in just 28 months from launch. Sony’s Playstation 2 had managed the feat in 36 months.

Nintendo recently announced it had shipped 100 million DS units.

MarkJFerreri's picture
On March 25th MarkJFerreri said:

Thanx, Nick

I see that some don't know sarcasm when they see it. Too bad . . .
But you've set a standard for yourself that instigates retaliation, not chuckles.

I see the adult buying trend for the Wii as a virus. Some noob buys a Wii and during the first couple of weeks they invite their noob friends to play. Their friends are intrigued and also buy them. In 6 weeks, our first noob has set his Wii aside, fully depleting his joy of gameplay, but in the mean time, his friends have also invited their own set of friends to get intrigued by this novel graphic interface. That's one of the ways these sales are growing at this rate. What would the anti-virus to this infection be? (is there one?)

As far as Nintendo's established audience goes (those under 12), there is good reason to see a growing popularity. It's an easy interface to use. Preschoolers can shake their hand around and cause the screen to interact. They can be just like the grown-ups. I don't see little kids growing tirede of the Wii.

Cudus to Nintendo! Their job, bottom line, is to be a profitable company. They are, at least in this generation, also a prophetable company. and with this amount of saturation of their Wii, any major software company would be idiots not to release their best titles for the Wii, and maybe those Wiis (despite their lower graphics potential, etc) would not be gaining so much dust after 6 weeks of novelty.

I don't own a Wii, so use that in your judgement of this post.

All Gaming is Good Gaming!

Mark............................................................................................................................

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

"I see the adult buying trend for the Wii as a virus. Some noob buys a Wii and during the first couple of weeks they invite their noob friends to play...."

Intersting theory. Have any evidence to support it? Or is it just a "sorta objective" theory?

Larson's picture
On March 27th Larson said:

"Some noob buys a Wii" - What an elitest twat.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

Nice post, and perhaps you're right. I actually think the Wii's attach rate is pretty solid and around what the industry standard has been the last couple generations (with the exception of the Xbox and 360 which has historically had a higher attach rate). The Wii's 5.5 is right there with the PS3's 5.1 and I'm sure most PS3 owners are of the hardcore variety.

As far as the sarcasm, you nailed my sarcasm on the head, but not Ozzman's. Maybe he wasn't layin it thick enough, but he too was being sarcastic. My post was an attempt at parodying Kim_Naroz (AKA game_fan, athlete_gamer, gamer_god) who has some classic posts that aren't too far off from what I was saying. If those profiles hadn't already been deleted you could check out some of his masterpieces.

I think it's awesome that the Wii is selling so well, if it keeps it up and topples the PS2 that'd be even better (I have a feeling it won't but that's just my opinion). Just like everyone every year seems to call for "the year of the PS3" just as many predict a decline in Wii sales, but 09 so far has been pretty darn strong for the Wii.

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

I thought I was laying it on plenty thick : (

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

As did I. The Bill Pullman is still the president comment shoulda been the first clue.

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

Confusion between Bill Pullman and Bill Clinton maybe? The names are quite similar.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

Even considering the name similarity, Bill Clinton isn't president now either lol. That's ok, simple oversight. Where's Kim when you need him?

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

MY guess would be creating another profile after, yet again, getting banned.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

PROBLEMS:

Nintendo back in 1948 changed what "shipped" and "sold" meant. Nintendo decided to claim shipped actually meant sold. Nintendo has wharehouses in area 51 where they store millions of unsold Wiis. Retailers didn't have room for them and have asked Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and then president BIll Pulman to relocate the extra Wiis to area 51.

Also, Nintendo's big exclusives like the game Mario Galaxy and Wii Play after being number 1 on NPD's monthtly top ten list went to 3rd place after just 27 months.

FACT:
After developers learned how to develope for the Wii they used that experience on their resume to get jobs at Disney Land. The entire developement team for Mario Galaxy has been hired by Nasa's space program rival CHINA to handle all their future space missions leaving only College students to make the next Mario game.

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

Nick this is complete rubbish and you darn well know it. BIll Pulman is STILL president. Please get your facts straight before posting this nonesense....................I SAID GOOD DAY!!!!

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

Lmao, Bill Pullman should be president, not only is he super generic always in the shadow of Bill Paxton, but he can fly a jet. He'd have my vote.

flowmastah's picture
On March 25th flowmastah said:

And how many games are they selling per system?

Kenology's picture
On March 25th Kenology said:

Last reported tie-ratios October 2008:
XBox360 - 8.1
Wii - 5.5
PS3 - 5.3

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20713

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

50 million systems shipped (49 Million sold?) X 5.5 games per system is about 270 milllion pieces of software, assuming that tie ratio hasn't swung significantly in either direction in the past few months.

Kenology's picture
On March 25th Kenology said:

50 million SOLD (as confirmed by Iwata at GDC), not shipped. If the attach rate can stay steady despite all the hardware Nintendo is selling, it would be insane.

Also, those attach rates are based off NPD data, so it's US only.

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

50 million SOLD already? Nice. Even if it was only 49 million they'd hit 50 million by next month anyway.

Oh so it is US sales attach rate then?

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

Thanks Ken.

The 360 is at 8.2 now as was reported after Feb's NPD numbers (you know me, I had to make sure that .1 was accounted for). ^^

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

If that's from NPD numbers, is that the tie ratio for US? Or globally?

NickgamertagO1's picture
On March 25th NickgamertagO1 said:

It was actually MS who made that claim I believe as worldwide and they released that PR statement after the NPD numbers were released but they really didn't specify.

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

It's probably worldwide then.

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

Last number i remember hearing is a 5.1 game attach rate. Anyone else remember the figure, or have the time to look it up?

Larson's picture
On March 25th Larson said:

Can't remember the exact number, but it was in between PS3 (lowest) and XBOX (highest by a bit).

On a wii related topic PES 2009! Best ever pro evo! But only the wii version!!! Nobody saw that one coming did they!

Just me that's excited then, okey dokey.

SaintJude's picture
On March 25th SaintJude said:

People can bitch all they want but Nintendo has been making profit on every single on they sold. From day one. Kudos Nintendo on business strategy, if not the software.

Ozzman_79's picture
On March 25th Ozzman_79 said:

There's 50 million soccor moms out there?

Kenology's picture
On March 25th Kenology said:

Nintendo will probably officially confirm this at GDC.

Dan_Chippendale's picture
On March 25th Dan_Chippendale said:

wow! just imagine how much dust that equates too

SaintJude's picture
On March 25th SaintJude said:

It's Wii-diculous!

Caffeine Rage's picture
On March 25th Caffeine Rage said:

Wow, that was wii-eally fast......

*cricket noises*

.....I'll get my coat

In seriousness though, it's a considerable feat for Nintendo. I purposely put in an awful wii joke (yeah, I know) on purpose. Remember how many of them there were? Remember how the wii was dismissed by quite a few people?

Fair play to Ninty for sticking by their guns. It seems the figures and records speak for themselves.