Wii sales to reach 50 million by March 2009

Nintendo forecasts huge sales for both Wii and Nintendo DS in coming year.

Nintendo has made a massive statement of intent, forecasting massive sales of both its Nintendo DS and Wii console for the coming financial year, which if correct will see the Wii only a breath away from 50 million unit sales and the DS a whisker away from 100 million unit sales.

Life to date sales of the Wii and Nintendo DS stand at 24.45 million units and 70.6 million respectively. In the 12 months ending March 31, 2008 the Wii sold 18.61 million units and the DS 30.31 million units.

It's the massive upturn in forecast Wii sales which will strike fear into the competition though. 12-month sales of 25 million would see the console open up a seemingly unbeatable lead in this console generation and leave the PS3 and Xbox 360 to battle it out for second place. In the same time frame the Nintendo DS is forecast to sell a further 28 million units.

Software sales on Nintendo's two platforms are also strong, with million seller titles rising from 30 to 57 titles on the DS and from 5 to 26 on the Wii. Games of note include Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (14.77 million units to date), the Brain Age series (23.81 million units to date), Wii Fit (1.85 million units in Japan) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (1.61 million units in Japan and 3.24 million units in North America).

Nintendo expects sales of Nintendo DS software in the 12 months ending March 2009 to reach 187 million units, with Wii software sales not far behind at 177 million units.