With more than 460,000 units sold in December, Wii U has now sold nearly 890,000 units in the United States after only 41 days on the market, according to the NPD Group. To date, Wii U hardware sales have generated more than $300 million in the U.S. alone; Wii hardware had generated just more than $270 million at the same point in its lifecycle.
“While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U, shows that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013. We look forward to offering great new experiences and bringing smiles to millions of new faces throughout the year.”
Nintendo sold more than 2.65 million hardware units in the United States in the month of December. 2012 marked the 11th consecutive year that Nintendo has sold at least 8 million hardware units in the U.S. Other Nintendo sales milestones achieved in December 2012 and beyond that time frame, include:
Wii U:
New Super Mario Bros. U has now sold more than 580,000 units, an attach rate of more than 65 percent.
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS:
Nintendo 3DS sold more than 1.25 million units in December and has crossed 7.7 million units sold life to date.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 became the fourth Nintendo 3DS title to surpass 1 million units sold in the U.S., and has now sold more than 1.45 million units life to date.
Nintendo 3DS continues to outpace the historic sales rate of Nintendo DS.
Wii
Wii:
Wii sold nearly 475,000 units and crossed 40.8 million units sold life to date.
Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3 became the 10th Wii title to sell more than 5 million units life to date.
Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS:
Nintendo DS sold nearly 470,000 units and crossed 53 million units sold life to date.
For more information about Nintendo, visit http://www.nintendo.com
*Note that all data referenced in this document is from The NPD Group’s December report, which covers the period of Nov. 25 through Dec. 29, and is for the United States only.
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Categories: Top Stories, Consoles, Portables, Press Releases | Tags: Wii U, Wii, 3DS, DS, DSi | Rating: 
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Only 460K?... Then as soon as it gets a price drop I'll buy one.
@link2dpast
@stealth
I don't see any trolling anywhere.
And the 3DS only started to sell decently when it received a HUGE price drop early on.
I do, the 3ds has been selling decently, since last year, been global number 1 since last june. All systems get a price drop, Every one. Using that as some kind of knock is dumb. Who cares how the 3ds got there.
The 3ds is over 25+ mill in less than 2 fiscal years. Those are great sales.
Last time Nintendo was the dominant force was back in the NES days - Sega gave them a run for their money during the SNES days - PS bitch slapped the N64 and PS2....well, you know how that compared to the Gamecube...
@stealth
I bet Nintendo cares how it got there. Dropping the 3DS price that soon was out of desperation, and it's not a healthy move to do time after time. They took a big hit, and Iwata took a lot of heat for the terrible launch. There's a reason they created the ambassador program for the 3DS.
As for Wii U, while it's still early, some of the same signs seem to be showing. From the numbers we have, it seems that it's not showing good promise in selling long term. Obviously, it can change with game announcements and releases, but it's starting to feel like Nintendo NEEDS to show something soon. If it's only selling this much in December, January most likely will be brutal, unless something drastic happens.
Somebody had to come and negative it up. I see you chose to go first. Congrats.
lol that article's spin is ridiculously dumb...
I don't think it's "negative" really, to state they are spinning the numbers/report. They are just spinning the numbers to a "positive", hoping investors like what they hear/see.
I own a Wii U (just hopped off of Black Ops 2 actually, about to play some Trine 2), and I don't think the numbers are that bad honestly...especially considering a few things:
1) The Wii U costs more than the Wii did at launch.
2) The state of the U.S. economy. Anybody believe the government's numbers on employment? Anybody know friends/family that have lost jobs and are in different jobs now, making less money than they were at the jobs they were making?
Considering the state of the economy and the higher price, I would say selling nearly a million is pretty good, but not great IF they had the consoles to sell. I saw Wii U units sitting on Target shelves the weekend before Christmas. A Wal-Mart on launch day had the Basic set sitting on the shelf...on launch day, about 4 hours after they had opened.
Then again, when you look at the 3DS market and the "support" that console has, apparently selling lots of units doesn't really matter to most developers. That being said, I still think NoA's marketing in the U.S. was/is horrendous for the Wii. Do we know European or Japanese numbers for December yet?
To me, 400K is not bad, but it's not good either. But I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of people who will strongly disagree with me on that.
They made more money, that's good.
If your seriously telling me it's bad they made more money (when the only thing we heard about the wii since launch is Nintendo has made so much money that it is practically printing it) then I say your logic is far and beyond me.
I aim to please.
When will you people start realising not every thing Nintendo does is perfect and justificable?
Well, the spin is it generated more money, but we don't know if they actually MADE more money. If they are selling the Wii Us at a loss, then just because it generated more "revenue" (what term did they use?), doesn't mean that was $30 million profit right?
Wii U launched better than any other HD-system, closing almost Wii like figures(despite it being more expensive and people having less money) and actually moved even more money than Wii.
I think the current atmosphere in media is far less about Nintendo "PR" and much more about its competitors PR trying to make Wii U look like its doomed(nothing new).
Congratulations. This comment section was worse than my realistic expectations of it.
I'm being sarcastic, because you deserve no merit for it.
@varoennauraa This.
I like how people are accusing Nintendo of spinning (which is true) and yet here they are doing their own negative spin.
The irony is almost palpable.
The facts are: the Wii U has launched better than any HD console, in an economically hostile climate. It costs more than the Wii, it plays the same multiplats as the other 2 consoles which are cheaper and have bigger libraries.
Along with having zero hype to it from hardcore gaming circles. People are saying the Wii U is doomed, but I think the Wii U's performance is a good gauge on how the upcoming 2 consoles will perform. In an age where smartphones and tablets rule supreme I highly doubt the Durango and PS4 will fly off shelves immediately after being released on the market. We won't see another Wii type console for a long time or ever.
What's more important is the money they make off the console. They need to stop bleeding money and getting back in the black.
It's doomed. It's a success. It's doomed. It's a success. (90% of the comments)
I think you should stick to coding websites and leave the marketing analysis to the experts.
the wii u isnt doomed or a success yet, its too early.
The 3ds however is a success
Here's a breakdown of the launch
It's selling better than the 360 did at launch, it's selling considerably better than the PS3 did at launch, it's selling more than the Vita did at launch, and it's selling roughly half of what the wii did at launch.
Here's a good breakdown
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/11/ ... i-u-launch
I know not everything they do is perfect. I know there are problems with the Wii U. That doesn't mean I have to instantly hate it and shout NINTENDO IS DOOOOOOOMED every time signs don't point to Nintendo selling Apple numbers. If you people aren't going to hold Microsoft and Sony to those standards, why do we have to hold Nintendo to them? Sorry I actually can see past the issues it has and still enjoy it.
Nintendo's PRs always talk about sales numbers, this time they decided to make it look great by saying that "selling consoles that are more expensive brought more money than a cheaper one" is awesome. Is not awesome, or even good (check the latest PAL charts btw). And what standard is anyone holding MS and Sony to? Vita launched with higher numbers than WiiU, now is deader than Dreamcast, the execs always keep lowering their expectations. MS? 360 is outselling both Wii and WiiU combined, and it still has a couple of years life ahead of it, why would anyone call them doomed?
A console that's been on the market for 7 years is selling better than a console that's been out for two months? You don't say? Seriously, how is comparing that OK, but comparing the respective launch figures not a good representation? The 360 has had 7 years to spread by word of mouth, there are going to be people who still buy it like there are people still buying the Wii.
That is true. I checked the 360 launch, and save for december 2005, PS2 was selling better for quite a while (but most of the time not with such a large difference WiiU is suffering right now, except for that dec 2005, and he three 7th gen consoles had lots of supply constrains, something WiiU does not). Again, we have yet to see how things turn out, but just because it did better than other consoles did 7 years ago it does not mean it will do well in the long run (Vita) or that it is a great thing to begin with (the gaming market is bigger than ever, and the "economy" excuse is not affecting other consoles or products)
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