DS and Wii outstrip US competition

By Robert Purchese Published 18 January, 2008

But Microsoft claims income victory.

Nintendo has continued its winning streak in the US, finishing comfortably ahead of opposition for hardware sales in 2007.

But Microsoft claims it was the real winner because it made the most money, raking in USD 4.8 billion compared to USD 3.5 billion on Wii, and USD 2.2 billion on PS3.

According to NPD data the DS sold 8.5 million and was followed by sibling Wii with 6.29 million.

Well ahead then, but Xbox 360 also put in a strong performance by shifting 4.62 million units.

Further down, pensioner PS2 pulled a youthful performance with 3.97 million, PSP managed 3.82 million, and PS3 sold 2.56 million in its first full year in shops.

Aha, but glance at the software favourites and the figures begin to make sense. Unsurprisingly Halo 3 sat atop the pile with 4.82 million, followed by chart-sticker Wii Play boasting 4.12 million.

Impressively, late arrival Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) crept to third with 3.04 million, partnered with Activision brethren Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) with 2.72 million. No Rock Band on the list, incidentally.

Then came the mighty Mario Galaxy in fifth with 2.52 million (oh come on you can do better than that), followed by Pokémon Diamond on DS with 2.48 million.

Yearly best seller Madden NFL 08 (PS2) managed 1.90 million to make seventh, while second Guitar Hero outing (PS2) shifted 1.89 million.

Rounding out the top ten for the year were Assassin's Creed (360) close behind with 1.87 million, and Mario Party 8 at 1.82 million.

All-in-all the US hardware and software market made USD 18 billion, which could have bought you Shell's Qatar oil plant last February. That figure was up 20 per cent on last year's total of USD 12.5 billion.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 4 years ago

    /In before the tears and flaming

  • LeD #2 4 years ago

    /cries

    /set fire to cat

  • gingerlink #3 4 years ago

    /puts out flaming cat

    /gets bored

    /reignites it

  • Markusdragon #4 4 years ago

    Is this profit, or revenue?

  • Dizzy #5 4 years ago

    Revenue ofc.... they would never disclose profit on this.

  • Johnson #6 4 years ago

    20% up on 12.5bn =/= 18bn.

  • Horse #7 4 years ago

    If this year's was 18 billion and last year's was 12.7 billion, then this year is up almost 50%, not 20%. Which would be mental. So is the 12.7 billion figure wrong?

    edit: Just beaten to the publish button!
    Edited by 1 at 18/01/08 @ 10:22

  • septimus #8 4 years ago

    They deserve it. Who can argue with the vast amount of quality games which are abundant on the system [Wii] and not gimmicky in the slightest. Gamers rejoice (as long as you are 11 or 45 and female).

    DS actually deserves it.

  • Carlo #9 4 years ago

    And we thought we argued over pointless bollocks?

  • Darren #10 4 years ago

    LOL @ Microsoft.

    Surely it's profits that matter not turnover. While Microsot might have made $4.8 billion in sales, I'm betting that Nintendo with their $3.5 billion sales have made a bigger profit since the hardware and games were designed to be profitable. Do Microsoft even make profits on the Xbox 360?

  • Dizzy #11 4 years ago

    >Do Microsoft even make profits on the Xbox 360?

    Nope.. but they outsold everything on software. That is money. Hence their profit press release.
    Edited by 1 at 18/01/08 @ 10:55

  • miiiguel #12 4 years ago

    Spin baby, spin...
    No matter how many millions, bilions, cazilions, our own personal economists know that MS is bankrupting..., I even wonder why MS don't close its doors once and for all.
    Ppl, write to its share holders! Just do it! That would be living!

    note: don't write "probably", you are certain! We all know MS is the smallest company in the world, they lose money on everything, losers...

    note 2: I've been on holidays in NY, and put it as you like, but Americans are in love with the 360... that's a sad fact, but we got to live with it, otherwise we go mental trying to spin it to our baby Sony. And I'm not predicting that in a near future evil MS will drop the games industry. I mean, they're not giving up on Zune, and not even americans buy the Zune, so expect to have grandchildren talking about Xboxes.
    Edited by 4 at 18/01/08 @ 12:08

  • miiiguel #13 4 years ago

    What's your problem, dude? I''m agreeing with you...
    MS is da evil, and doomed and shit. But I saw a freaking 360 in every freaking US home I've been too. I can say otherwise if that makes you happy:

    "Americans don't dig 360, nor MS at all"
    "MS is closing their doors"
    "MS is bankrupted"
    "Windows caput..."

    Friends ?


    While I can be mistaken by a litle girl (I do have few body hair), I don't have a problem with MS bankrupting, I don't own any shares. I couldn't care less if they die or live happily ever after. I'm even typing from a SuSE box.
    Edited by 3 at 18/01/08 @ 12:41

  • Dizzy #14 4 years ago

    Dude for energy negative article you can find a positive one.

    Stop being emo about this and focus on the now.

  • asphaltcowboy #15 4 years ago

    "No Rock Band on the list, incidentally."

    That's because it's not out anywhere but the bloody US!

  • Dizzy #16 4 years ago

    >WTF is an "emo"?

    It is a bird from Patagonia.

  • xagarath #17 4 years ago

    Income is meaningless.
    If they made more profit, that would be another story.

  • miiiguel #18 4 years ago

    "Income is meaningless."

    I so dig income, though...

  • Tweakmonkey #19 4 years ago

    Nintendo is d00med lol

    Not really - but a lot of people thought this before the DS and Wii came along.

  • Feanor #20 4 years ago

    Any honest gamer will remember the terrible reliability problems of the 360 in its first two years as a fiasco.

  • dr_lha #21 4 years ago

    asphaltcowboy: "That's because it's not out anywhere but the bloody US!"

    This story is about US sales figures only!
    Edited by 1 at 18/01/08 @ 18:14

  • DjFlex52 #22 4 years ago

    This article:
    http://ww w.gamesindustry.biz/content_pag...

    has pretty much the same sentiments as I've been posting on here for the last few months. Theres a compelling argument to suggest that M$ may yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - things are certainly going to be a lot more competitive for them over the course of the year.

    @Arbiter

    MS bashers/Sony defenders like you, Arbiter, have to hold on to something even if it's pointless. MS' victory (add in Ninty's) cant be taken away. How soon you've forgotten that Sony had the market share last console generation by an overwhelming super landslide and now it's GONE and NEVER coming back this generation. The Wii and the 360 already won when they dethroned the Sony beast....no matter how much spin you want to add to it.

    You make it seem like the videogame industry being more competitive this year is a bad thing. It's only bad for Sony and Sony fanboys like you who can't brag domination. Spin it anyway you want. Competition is great for us gamers...should I include you and your brethren?

    This generation will be remembered more for "How stupid is Sony for losing their dominance?" and "Nintendo is back" not MS RROD problem.

  • secombe #23 4 years ago

    It signals to developers that Software is selling on the 360 better than anyother machine, I doubt the 'non gamers' that Nintendo target will buy much software. I think mainly kids will be buying the wii and probably many non gamers, and kids don't buy as many games as adults.

    Er, did you look at the top selling games, then completely ignore it?! The Wii has a game at #2, one at #5 and one at#10.

  • subtlesnake #24 4 years ago

    "Errr the fact the MS had to set aside > 1 BILLION US$ just to cover the cost of this 3 year warranty has been well reported.
    Google it FFS. "

    Yes, and they've already set aside the 1 Billion, so it's not going to be an ongoing problem. Anyway, they made a profit last quarter (thanks in part to Halo 3) and given the incredible software numbers we've seen, that should be repeated again this quarter.

    I think people put to much stock in the size of the install base. The only reason to grow the install base is to sell more software, and right now Microsoft is selling more than the PS3 and Wii combined. Add in the costs savings they must have made on the hardware, and the ridiculous mark-up on the peripherals, and they're in a very good position.

  • DjFlex52 #25 4 years ago

    It signals to developers that Software is selling on the 360 better than anyother machine, I doubt the 'non gamers' that Nintendo target will buy much software. I think mainly kids will be buying the wii and probably many non gamers, and kids don't buy as many games as adults.

    Er, did you look at the top selling games, then completely ignore it?! The Wii has a game at #2, one at #5 and one at#10.

    @secombe

    That's not selling alot of software...that's selling only those 3 games in the top 10. Noone is buying the Wii crap games. MS is not selling the most software just because of their games in the top 10. Overall, more games titles are bought for the 360 because they had the best overall selection of games in 2007. Did you ignore that small item of information?

  • secombe #26 4 years ago

    ^^^ The information in the article states the following:

    360: 3 titles (1st, 3rd and 9th)
    Wii: 3 titles (2nd, 5th, 10th)

    How does that mean nobody is buying Wii games exactly?! I don't doubt for a second that the 360 is selling one hell of a lot more software, and I wasn't suggesting it wasn't. I'm just saying people clearly are buying Wii games. If I remember rightly the first several weeks of December in the UK had an exclusive Wii game at #1 in the all-formats chart, and I'm pretty sure the Japanese buy their fair share of Wii games. Globally I don't think it's as bad as people make out,

  • Razz #27 4 years ago

    No, that's not the issue. The problem is that people aren't buying enough 3rd party Wii games. :/

  • TsunamiRR #28 4 years ago

    I dont know why there is so much hate for MS. Yes, the Xbox 360 was shipped with a major flaw. But it is also a amazing piece of hardware, with the best games library around atm. And not all of them are sequels (like most PS3 good games). It is normal that MS has made so much money, and I'm very happy that I droped the "PS fanboyism" to join the ranks of MS's Xbox.

    The way I see it, most europeans (specially in the south, like in my country, Portugal) cant pass the fact that the brand "Playstation" is almost tatooed in their minds, thus making them blind to other consoles. Here, PS3 has 90% market share, which is ridiculous, considering that lack of great games so far for such a young console.

    I'm not saying that it's wrong to prefer the PS3 over the Xbox 360. But to ignore the other console because it's MS's, and to atack it without really knowing the machine, is not being reasonable.

  • Les #29 4 years ago

    "I'm not saying that it's wrong to prefer the PS3 over the Xbox 360. But to ignore the other console because it's MS's, and to atack it without really knowing the machine, is not being reasonable."

    But perfectly explainable with people being unreasonable beings...