back to article Nintendo Wii set to beat MS' 17.7m all-time Xbox 360 sales tally

Microsoft has sold 17.7m Xbox 360 games consoles since the machine was introduced in late 2005, 4.3m of them since the beginning of October 2007, the company claimed yesterday. That almost certainly means the Microsoft console has outsold Sony's PlayStation 3, though that machine only went on sale a year after the Xbox 360 did …

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  1. Giles Jones Gold badge

    In use

    How many 360s are in use though?

    There's quite a few XBox 360s sitting around on shelves, but stocks of the Wii are very scarce.

    Shipping consoles to retailers is one thing, selling them to end users is a different thing.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    silence.

    "Not bad for a machine that has a much lower spec than the 360 and PS3, and has been on sale for a shortly period. "

    I would of thought only a retard wouldn't expect the wii to sell more, as it's almost half the price of one and a third of the other and from a "reputable" console maker.

    I hate nintendo and it's plumber - but I'm smart enough to know that the cheaper a machine the more likely it is to shift as long as it's from someone reputable. As you can easily buy it on a whim, or get it as a present, and it's easy to view as a toy for kids so parents will buy it over the other two.

    Man this is the most annoying running "story" in the world. Cheap consoles sell more then expensive consoles, Japanese prefer Japanese consoles, consoles sell more when a big name game comes out. It's not news - any donkey knows it.

    GAH GET A NEW JOB!

  3. James Pickett

    Profit

    It would be interesting to see the graphs for profit - I assume that the PS3 and Xbox are still sold at a loss?

    Since the Xbox has been on sale for nearly twice as long as the Wii, you could also say that the Wii is selling nearly twice as fast. It would be even more if Nintendo could make them...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Halo 3 not important

    Halo3 has dropped down the charts since it's launch it's not a major factor now (last I saw it was 28th behind many other XBox360 titles).

    vgchartz suggests a 2.3 - 3 million unit lead Wii over Xbox 360.

    How's the HD DVD vs BluRay numbers doing? I did a quick Amazon chart look:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/ref=sv_d_3/103-5130490-4653461

    And BluRay was top and many other positions with the first HD DVD disc coming in at 43rd. A far far bigger difference than I was expecting.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Wii not same gen as PS3 & XBox 360!!!

    When will you stop lumping the Wii in with PS3 and XBox 360 in these articles?

    If you want to include old tech games consoles in the figures, the Game Boy and PS2 would still wipe the floor with all of them. They've sold about 120M units each!!!

  6. Ian Ferguson
    Happy

    Games

    I agree with the above comments that these figures are of dubious value, due to the price differences between the consoles.

    What would be much more interesting would be a comparison of the number of games sold per month for each type of console. As games retail for much the same (around £30) across the board, it would be a fairer statistic; and it would have the added value of comparing the amount of use consoles are getting.

    I would be interested to see if the Wii loses its lead with these statistics because what we don't know is how many people bought it on a whim (due to the low price) but aren't using it much. I suspect PS3 / Xbox 360 purchasers are more hardcore gamers and will be putting more hours into gaming, translating into more game sales.

    Success will be measured by games sold, especially by Sony and Microsoft; as the per-unit licensing fees are their main expected revenue, not profits from number of consoles sold. I know Nintendo allegedly turn a profit on the Wii, but I'm sure they too are expecting the bulk of the income to be coming from games.

  7. Photon
    Stop

    RE: Wii not same game as PS3 & Xbox 360!!!

    You are quite obviously using a very different definition of generation to that which I am. Generation does not refer to the technical capabilities of the console, but merely which generation it belongs to - you are trying to say that the Cube and the Wii are the same gen which quite simply cant be, as one is the child of the other.

    Whilst I do appreciate that the specs of the Wii are considerably lower than the 360 or the PS3, this does not change anything. I think you will also find its not so much about price (people where buying Wiis for more than the price of the PS3 in the drought before christmas) as a victory for fun over realism. Unfortunately for MS and Sony, most people over the age of 18 want a game that is fun, EVEN IF IT DOESNT LOOK REAL, and this trancends 'generation' boundries (see PS3, DS Lite etc). Its only very hardcore fanbois that care about the number of polys pushed and the various advanced rendering techniques (HDR anyone?) in a game that is about as much fun as watching paint dry.

    This hell for leather pushing of technology when people are not ready for it nor actually wanting it is killing the games market, and is now moving in on the TV and DVD markets. The console manufacturers would be wise to remember why everyone says that the PC gaming market has gone the way of the dodo...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Coat

    "When will you stop lumping the Wii in with PS3 and XBox 360 in these articles?"

    Isn't one of the Fundamental Rules of The Register something about not moaning when the Wii is described as a "next-generation" console? I expect someone to chime in with a comment to the effect that the Wii is just a Gamecube with a funky controller / ideal party machine / the "famine" was imaginary etc.

  9. David

    Wii is still just a gimmick

    I know several people (myself included) who have either bought a Wii beacause it is inexpensive, and have either since shelved it, or sold it on. I since bought a 360, and haven't been able to stop playing it.

    I think the above mentioned games sales statistics would be a better measure.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Games, Wii wipes the floor there too

    "What would be much more interesting would be a comparison of the number of games sold per month for each type of console."

    Worldwide latest vgchartz:

    1. Wii Sports

    2. Super Mario Galaxy

    3. Wii Play

    4. DS game

    5. DS game

    6. Wii Fit

    7. PS2 game

    8. Wii Mario game

    9. XBox360 game

    In total units of games another Wii win

    Wii 3,830,989

    XBox360 2,498,299

  11. Iain

    Re: price differences

    Since it's a real struggle to find a Wii without at least £50 worth of bundled rubbish, the XBox 360 Arcade is actually a feasible purchase now it has a HDMI socket, wireless controller and bundled memory card, and even a 360 Premium available for not much more if you shop around a bit, the price differences really aren't all that big between the two. Now you can get a PS3 for £299 they're not massively more expensive, either.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder how many upgrade to a Wii?

    "I know several people (myself included) who have either bought a Wii beacause it is inexpensive, and have either since shelved it, or sold it on. I since bought a 360,"

    I wonder, how many people have bought an XBox 360 or PS3 or Gaming PC and have gone on to buy a Nintendo Wii. For all the talk, Wii is the most advanced console, simply because it is the only one to support the motion/acceleration/pointer controllers. Joe public has voted with their wallets that these controllers are the next generation feature that has value.

    Most of those Wii owners will already have a PC capable of games, yet they went on to buy a Wii after all!

    So I bet there are quite a few of those Wii sales that are also bought by XBox360 and PS3 owners, simply because the motion thing makes a world of difference to the playability of games.

    The games sales figures (above) say Wii is being played not shelved because they're buying games for it, and that's certainly the experience in my home (Wii plus PC gaming rig, the PC is hardly touched for games now, Wii Party 8 is the current family favorite).

    So for me the future will be Wii and Eee, Wii for games and Eee for surfing/wordprocessing/email etc. The all-in-one games/work PC will not be replaced when it breaks. Instead I'll be playing games on consoles from now on, and having a much simpler neater home PC to work and surf on.

  13. Joe Cooper
    Paris Hilton

    Duh

    "Man this is the most annoying running "story" in the world. Cheap consoles sell more then expensive consoles,"

    Thank you!

    It's also really annoying considering the context.

    The last generation, the lower spec Playstation2 beat the snot out of both of it's higher spec competitors.

    Before that, the bottom-feeder spec Playstation beat the snot out of the Saturn (which got discontinued) and the 64-bit, three times higher clock speed, 500mhz FSB, trilinear mipmap textured, Nintendo 64.

    And before that, the $600 NeoGeo got pissed on by the Super Nintendo.

    Does ~anyone~ see a f**king pattern?

    Low spec systems winning is ~the norm~. I'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying it is. Paris Hilton icon, to represent everyone who is in shock and awe of the Wii's performance.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    R.E.. I wonder how many upgrade to a Wii?

    I did... at the time I got my Wii I had a 360 and a PSP as well as a PC and iMac. I got the Wii, and my girlfriend got a DS which led to me trading in my PSP for the DS.

    I used to hate Nintendo but they've won me over. For sheer pick up and play they are by far the best and the fact even my 53 year old mother had fun playing the DS and the Wii at Christmas shows that Nintendo have hit the jackpot in terms of broad appeal.

    Two games received at Christmas, Orange Box and Mario Galaxy and I've been playing Galaxy to death, I've not had such a feeling of WOW playing a game for a long long time. Its by far my game of 2007, even ahead of Halo 3, Bioshock etc.

  15. Bantam

    How many upgrade to a Wii? well I did

    I bought a gaming PC this summer and have since gone on to buy a Wii, why? The sheer fun and variety the Wii offers. Mario Galaxy is probably one of the most inventive and best games I have played in years and the controllers complement it superbly...

    The Wii is the most "next gen" out of the three consoles because it offers more and something truly different.

  16. Jason

    R.E.. I wonder how many upgrade to a Wii?

    The Wii was the last system of the 3 that I've bought, with the only game that I play on it being Wii Bowling (played a few others, but they've since been shelved). I've owned nearly every game system available in the US, and 360 is by far my favorite both for the games and the console as a media system, and the only console I'd repurchase (psp is awesome as well).

    As far as the "next gen" systems, Wii is NOT a next gen system, it is based on old tech (gamecube), and is at best a new revision to an existing system, adding new controls. It also exists in a different market (the "fun" or party games segment), as opposed to the 360/PS3 which are in the gamer market. As they are 2 different segments, you can not compare sales figures. It's like comparing 2 sports cars sales figures to that of a Prius.

    I agree with the other posters, let this die and find some real news to write about.

  17. Andrew Burrow
    Dead Vulture

    Wii not same gen as PS3 & XBox 360!!! Lets re-define

    So the Wii shouldn't lump the Wii, X360 and the PS3 with the same "Next Gen" label. I agree. I mean come on the X360 and the PS3 are both last gen 1.5 and the Wii is Next Gen.

    After all both the X360 and PS3 are the same as the last gen consoles with an underwhelming graphics update. I have played some games on X360 and have not felt that WOW look at the graphics feeling. Personally I think no one will get that feeling again as the jumps are less perceivable with each generation.

    Now the Wii on the otherhand, ok, hasn't got the graphical whizz bang as the other two, but it has revolutionary genuine next gen controls. I mean come on, if someone said that we would be able to control a game with our bodys we would sit up and take note. Watch MS and sony copy Nintendo in the next gen.

    When I first played the Wii, the first thing I thought was "I have been playing 'Simon Says' on other consols all these years". All of a sudden pushing a button to kick, hit or fire just felt lame. Now I could actually DO the actions. OK the whole interface needs refining, but play Wii Sports and feel the smile spread accross your face as you HIT a tennis ball, not just puch a button to do it.

    I personally feel the future is in analogue gaming. Gaming where the person is limited by there skill not by how well timed a button push is. Take RE4 on the Wii and anyother shooter on a PC. With RE4 you have to aim, and your hand movement can affect how well that happens. As opposed to the 'point and double click' interface used by PC based FPS...oh and Windows for that matter. Not a lot of difference between clicking on an icon and a person.

    So most people who are too scared to try and see past the flashy graphics and step away from the herd, think the Wii is last gen. You got it the wrong way round sheeps.

  18. Tony
    Paris Hilton

    @Andrew Burrow

    Well said!

  19. InsaneGeek

    Total # of 360 games sold beat Wii by 41.1%

    Actually anonymous who posted the VGChartz data if you compare to the number of games sold the Xbox360 is handily beating the Wii & PS3 consoles. From the same website as you I used a more proper calculation value taking those total quantity sold, rather that what you did: which games sold more during a single week in December.

    ---

    Xbox360: 104.66 mill games sold

    WII: 61.61 mill games sold (78.96 if you count the bundled Wii Sports as a sale)

    PS3: 30.31 mill games sold

    ---

    To reproduce, goto vgchartz.com & login as a member to give you the option of by sorting by sales and filter by console

    Select game database, select the console (PS3, X360 & WII), select order by sales, and simply add up the total sales column (I went until I hit "0.00mill"). This will give a resonable represenation of the total number of physical games sold for each platform, rather than who sold what this week based on hype. I retrieved this data on Jan 4, 2008 from the website.

    Additionally downloaded games from Xbox Live, Wii Virtual Console or PSN do not appear to be included on the list so the total values should be higher. Including paid for downloaded games should not materialy change these values, and most likely would only increase the 360's lead.

  20. Daniel

    @insane

    surely the total number of sales is not an accurate measurement either? we've established that the 360 crowd is more "hardcore" and therefore i would expect them to buy more games.

    ANyway your all wrong, PC for games, wii for fun.

    if you want realism, play on your pc against your mates, talking on teamspeak and playing on the one true platform.

    If you want to get hammered with your mates and have a laugh, you break out the wii.

    and for this whole next gen argument... did they have decent motion sensors on the previous generation??? NO so this is a new generation, graphics aren't everything my friend, why do you think people play these rediculous online flash games for hours and hours on end!?!

  21. chris

    LOL

    You guys are brilliant. People get up and go down to every major retailer in the city on a daily basis and line up in the cold here over 1 year later just to get a console $30 cheaper than the Xbox 360 Core and $100 cheaper than the Xbox 360 premium. Right. And that's also why you had to pay as much as $700 throughout the holiday season for a Wii on Ebay, but you could easily snag a PS3 for the amount in the $350 to $400 range. Yep. You guys are bright.

    Oh, and by the way, the GCN was $199 next to the $299 Xbox and PS2, and it lost out to both in overall hardware sales. And the Xbox was technically at a level a full leap above the PS2, and had much of the same games, but the much weaker and graphically incapable PS2 outsold the Xbox 6 to 1. Also, the PS1 could only run 75K polygons on screen, only had two controller ports, and had constant LONG loading times throughout all games, as well as horrendous framerates, but it still blew the much more powerful N64 out of the water in overall sales, despite having the major hardware advantages, a better, groundbreaking controller, more advanced 3D games, no loading times and breathrough exclusive 4-player AAA multiplayer games. And the NES trounced the Sega Master system, despite not being nearly as powerful. The Gameboy killed the Sega GameGear almost overnight, but wasn't even close graphically. And the DS is blowing the PSP and everything else out of the water, but again, it has the weakest graphics.

    The reason is that only a very, very small percentage of gamers, the self proclaimed "hardcore" gamers, really only care about all of the overkilled detail in the in-game graphics. The other 95% of people out there look at a game like Wii Sports or Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3, like they looked at all those other systems. The graphics are still good. They are good enough. It comes down to games. And Nintendo has the games with some of the mega hitters of the generation so far like The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess, Wii Sports(which were both GOTY nominees last year), as well as the most acclaimed game from this past holiday season-- Super Mario Galaxy. Not only that, but the channels are fun and accessible, people like making the Mii characters of themselves and celebrities and using them in games, the virtual console is a big hit, and it's just fun and fresh being immersed in these interactive motion sensor based games.

    After over a decade of the same old Playstation controller, with the same old hardware design, and same old style of games, but with small upgrades in graphics, how the hell can you suddenly expect the masses to now pay about twice as much as they always paid in the past, just for like I said, the same system and games from last generation, but with some better lighting and shinier plastic looking surfaces? It's not like they made huge leaps in graphics. They're still obviously fake and blocky looking graphics. They're just sharper and more cleaned up from last generation, and now they run in HD if you are in the minority of people that own one.

    The first two Playstations would never have been as big as they were if there had been a true "console for the masses" like the Wii. They sold well because they were the best options available because Sony got out of the gate first both times and built a huge installed base and development advantage before the competition got a foothold.

    But expect both MS and Sony to "casualize" their next systems, just reboxing slightly upgraded current physical hardware to keep development costs and retail costs down. They'll both rip off the Wiimote, and we'll most certainly be seeing "Xbox sports" or some stupid copycat at launch. Anyone who thinks Sony or MS are going to spend billions after this generation to build a whole new level of chipset and try to get developers to bail on this generation and move onto a whole new more expensive platform, where games could go as high as 50 million to develop, when it's clear that consumers go with accessible, intuitive systems directed as everybody, not just teenage and college boys, then you're just flat out clueless.

  22. alan buxey
    Stop

    next gen - you are all wrong

    quick fact. Wii is the same generation as xbox 360 and PS3 - look

    at the release cycles and the previous console release cycles.

    quick fact 2 - NONE of them are 'next generation' - as they now all exist and have been in the market for over a year! They are therefore correctly described as 'current generation'

    when will we start seeing them correctly described as thus?

    (any pedants out there need me to publish the full generation cycle for consoles since 1988?)

    not many people have a clue as to what the 'next generation' consoles will be like. a few obvious guesses point to built in networking, HD gfx output, multiple CPU architecture, motion sensitive wireless controllers with feedback. other than that...

    regarding the 'next gen' i think another posted has correctly stated that we wont see advances made in the gfx/sound - a lot of gamers dont care for more photorealism...the future will give us more unique control aspects, better AI, better multiplayer options etc - i'd propose systems that have dual display outputs etc might enter the console gaming mix.

  23. matthew bennion
    Happy

    Old Generation Console Whoops the Ass of New Generation Consoles

    Which sounds worse for poor old Sony and Microsoft:

    "Wii Out Sells XBox 360 and PS3"

    or

    "Old generation console Out Sells XBox 360 and PS3"

    Surely defending Sony and Microsoft by saying the Wii is a last generation console makes you a tit as your basically saying two Current Generation consoles are being out sold by a last generation console.....It's hardly bigging them up......

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