Wii raises bar for calendar year sales

Nintendo has responded to sales figures published by the NPD Group for the month of December, 2008, in America, announcing record breaking calendar year sales for both Wii and Nintendo DS.

2008 has been a fantastic year for Nintendo with sales of the Wii and Nintendo DS reaching 10.17 million and 9.95 million units respectively in America. Nintendo points out that both systems beat the previous yearly unit sales record of 8.52 million units set by the Nintendo DS in 2007. The Wii also becomes the first video game system to sell over 10 million units in a calendar year in America.

In 2008 the Wii represented 55 per cent of all next generation home console sales, while the Nintendo DS claimed a 72 per cent share of the handheld market.

Nintendo also pointed out that software sales on Nintendo platforms were very strong, with the top four selling games of 2008 all on the Wii: Wii Play (5.28 million units), Mario Kart Wii (5 million), Wii Fit (4.53 million) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (4.17 million).

Nintendo also noted that in December Nintendo titles filled 20 of the top 30 spots on the best-sellers list, with six games made for Nintendo systems placing in the Top 10. This included Wii Music which has now sold 865,000 units in the US and Mario Kart DS which has moved 4.3 million units after 38 months on general sale.

With so much talk of third-party software performing poorly on Wii, Nintendo also pointed out that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band Special Edition Bundle all sold more units on Nintendo platforms than any other platforms in 2008.

Additionally, Nintendo says more third-party software units were sold for Wii than any other home console in December and that in 2008 more than 132 million games were sold in America for play on Nintendo systems.