Wii U loses to Wii in terms of first-week sales

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   December 8th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Wii U first-week sales end up falling short of the number of Wii units that were sold during its first week of launch in 2006.

Nintendo’s first-ever HD console has been one of the hottest hardware in the US market and understandably so.

Retailers had reportedly gone out of pre-order stock weeks before the console’s launch, which was scheduled for November 18, while the fresh stock provided by the Japan-based company continued to disappear as soon as it appeared in the market later on, which highlighted the demand of the system in the market.

Despite an impressive launch week, Wii U has failed to surpass the first-week sales of its predecessor Wii, claims the research firm NPD.

The original Wii had sold 475,000 units during its opening week in 2006, whereas Wii U came up just short with 425,000 units.

The date collected by NPD went on to suggest that even though the sales of Wii were more than that of Wii U during the first week of launch, the latter generated more total revenue.

“The much anticipated launch of the new Wii U console brought in more dollars than the Wii launch in November 2006, up 21 percent from that launch month,” analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “With an average price 35 percent higher for the Wii U at launch compared to the Wii, this is an example of how consumers are willing to come out and spend when they see the value of the product.”

The units of Wii U sold by Nintendo are nothing short of impressive as the console was born into a very competitive market and was being looked upon as a heavy underdog.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 were never going to make it easy for the new Nintendo system to attract consumers. Thus, sales of 425,000 units is something that the company will surely be proud of.

NPD has also revealed that during the month of November, 243,000 copies of New Super Mario Bros. U were sold, while further suggesting that nearly 60 percent of Wii U buyers picked up a copy of the game.

Despite such a high number of sales, the latest title in the Mario franchise failed to make it into the Top 10, managing to go as high as 11^th.

Nintendo Land and ZombiU were also among the most popular software for Nintendo’s next-generation console.

Wii U may have gotten off to a very promising start in the US, but it is still too early for Nintendo to start celebrating the success of its new console. The next-generation console has also been making good sales in Europe, with the UK consumers in particular showing a huge interest in the new hardware.

The console has hit the shelves in Japan today.