March Wii sales top 720,000 in US

By Robert Purchese Published 18 April, 2008

Wii beats PS3 and Xbox 360 combined.

Nintendo managed to sell a whopping 720,000 Wii consoles in the US last month.

Sales were boosted by the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 2.7 million copies were sold in March, three times as many as the game's nearest competitor.

According to NPD data Nintendo's name was on 58 per cent of all hardware sold across the US, with the DS shifting 698,000 units.

The Mario-maker expects the momentum to continue, too; Nintendo of America pointed to upcoming releases of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii as potential gold mines.

Further down and there was just 5000 units difference between Xbox 360 and PS3 figures. Microsoft landed on top with 262,000 sales and Sony was just behind with 257,000.

Sony also managed to dish out 297,000 PSP handhelds during the month, plus 216,000 PS2 consoles.

In the software stakes, Xbox 360 versions of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Army of Two took second and third place respectively.

Wii Play kept up its phenomenal record to hold onto four, while PSP releases God of War: Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII took five and six respectively.

From there it was Guitar Hero III on Wii at seven, followed by Xbox 360 versions of MLB 2K8 and Call of Duty 4.

Army of Two on PS3 rounded out the chart at 10.

Hardware:

  • Wii - 720,000
  • DS - 698,000
  • PSP - 297,000
  • Xbox 360 - 262,000
  • PS3 - 257,000
  • PS2 - 216,000

Software:

  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) 2,700,000
  • Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360) 752,300
  • Army of Two (360) 606,100
  • Wii Play (Wii) 409,800
  • God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) 340,500
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) 301,600
  • Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) 264,100
  • MLB 2K8 (360) 237,100
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) 237,000
  • Army of Two (PS3) 224,900
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

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  • japstersam #1 4 years ago

    gooo Wii :)

  • paulf #2 4 years ago

    take note microsoft - non of this 'sales have doubled' rubbish - but hard numbers, I suppose when you are doing really well you dont have to rely on spin for your press releases though

  • kincaide #3 4 years ago

    Go Wii - and isn't this supposed to be a "quiet" month?

  • Royal Fool #4 4 years ago

    The world really has gone mad.

  • Razz #5 4 years ago

    Holy shit. Everytime I see one of these article it's another reminder of how stupid I was not to buy shares in Nintendo

  • Goffee #6 4 years ago

    Coo, people do actually buy PSP games as well. I thought it was all a miff!

  • bad09 #7 4 years ago

    That's some impressive figures! I have to say I have some new love for the Wii after Mario Kart, the most fun I've had with the machine to date.

  • Dizzy #8 4 years ago

    Good to see Wii pulling in some software numbers as well.

    Software wise 360, PSP and Wii seem to be the only game in town. Where is the DS?

  • Olemak #9 4 years ago

    Also worth noting that the only PS3 entry in the list was army of two in thenth place, selling about one third as many copies as the 360 version of the same game. Hm. Telling.

    I like this list format; dividing sales on the various platforms. COD4 is not the same on PS3 and Nintendo DS, so it makes sense to separate them like this. And for us fanboys it is of course more fun to see what platform "wins". I hope we can get similarily detailed lists for Europe too - hopefully the entire EU treated as a single market. Would be nice for comparing sales and revenues in the european market and the US.

    Looking forward to the sales list for may...

  • Les #10 4 years ago

    hardly a surprise

  • Prodigy_BE #11 4 years ago

    So we're done laughing with the "Wii" name then?
    Okay, I just had some "wee" jokes left, that's all.

    Hooray for Nintendo, by the way.

  • Bumhug360 #12 4 years ago

    Lol love the gamesindustry.biz article about this

    "Microsoft reclaimed its second place position in sales, just below Nintendo’s Wii, by selling 262,000 Xbox 360 consoles and beating out the PS3 which sold 257,000 units."

    Just below? looks a hell of a gap to me

  • mingster #13 4 years ago

    So why is it they've sold so many DS's but not a single DS game in the top ten?

  • Les #14 4 years ago

    "So why is it they've sold so many DS's but not a single DS game in the top ten?"

    Because the group of people interested in the DS is rather diverse so not everyone has the same tastes. It's the complete opposite of the 360 which is mainly loved by the US sports/shooters fans, leading to high sales of small number of perfectly targeted titles.

    I feel for the people that got MLB 2K8 BTW. That game is really crap.

  • tapper #15 4 years ago

    "So why is it they've sold so many DS's but not a single DS game in the top ten?"

    R4?

  • Widge #16 4 years ago

    yeah, WAY better

  • penhalion #17 4 years ago

    Has Microsoft done a price drop in the US yet?

  • hilts #18 4 years ago

    guitar hero 3 for wii has been selling loads in the states, don't know if it is seliing much here - seems to have been largely out of stock at most places (like galaxy for a while)
    anyone here got it and know if they sorted the mono problem?
    Edited by 1 at 18/04/08 @ 10:27

  • thepiedpiper #19 4 years ago

    who is buying all these psps?

  • PlugMonkey #20 4 years ago

    So we're done laughing with the "Wii" name then?

    No. Not yet. ;)

    Looking ahead the next "big" launches would seem to favour PS3 (GTA, GT prologue, MGS)

    Why do you think GTA will favour Sony, when other multiformat realeases like Army of Two are selling at a rate of 3:1 in favour of microsoft? I think that one will play to MS and with the price cut I wouldn't be surprised to see a 360 sales spike when GTA comes out.

  • WinterSnowblind #21 4 years ago

    @paulf

    What spin? The article from yesterday was regarding European sales, this is US only, which never saw the price cut, so this proves nothing. Wait for the European sales figures.

  • LetsGo #22 4 years ago

    Good job sony has more AAA releases coming up than the 360, it needs em'!

  • quantumsheep #23 4 years ago

    "What's that word I'm looking for but can't bring myself to say?

    Hint: starts with N and ends with N."


    Nothin'???

    ;)

  • Arnold__ #24 4 years ago

    Oh come on. Are we comparing apples with apples here? Whats the point comparing Wii with PS3/X360? In other news, 2,100,000 Barbie dolls were sold, thrashing the Wii/PS3/X360 combined. Get the point? The Wii is not aimed at gamers, its aimed at kids, soccer mums and the elderly. These sales numbers are pointless.

    Now get back to playing cooking mama while we continue with chains of olympus.

  • quantumsheep #25 4 years ago

    *sigh*

  • bigbadbeasty #26 4 years ago

    @Arnold__

    Bravo, I think you have taken todays troll award.

    If you really believe this then you are a fool.

  • PlugMonkey #27 4 years ago

    Arbiter - I see your point re: MGS and GT. I can't think of any competing Xbox exclusives, but I still think GTA will benefit MS very strongly. It's aimed squarely at their demographic, they offer the cheapest way for new users to get to play it, and they offer the extra DLC content. Also, MS have a pretty big lead in America. Isn't it something like 7 million ahead? At an extra 60k a quarter, it'll take far too long for Sony to catch up and we're getting to the stage where a lead like that can really begin to tell. I think we're already seeing it in terms of the relative quality of multi format games on the two systems, and I think with the rise of the importance of online play, buying the same system as my friends are playing on will be even more of a factor this time round.

    Sony are in a strong position in Europe and Japan, but in America I don't think they're gaining ground fast enough to tip the balance, and GTA is not going to help them at all.

    Arnold__ - No, they are competing against each other. If you really can't see that you're a one-eyed fanboy imbecile.

  • ZeroAX #28 4 years ago

    pawned

  • ronuds #29 4 years ago

    It's not so much of a stretch to say the Wii and PS3/360 are competing for different markets, so if we can say that why can't we also say that to compare them against each other isn't necessarily fair?

    I mean, if you're buying a Wii, you're certainly not going for the same type of gaming experience as you are with a 360 or PS3. Why is that so offensive an unheard of for people? Is it simply to feed our fanboy lust for "competing products"? Just because they're all "consoles" doesn't necessarily mean they're after the same people. Fisher Price makes plastic phones, so should we compare its sales to that of LG or Nokia?

    Now, of course MS and Sony would like to have the same people buying PS3's and 360's as the Wii, but as of today it's simply not the case.

    So by most people's logic, because Lamborghini's and Volkswagon Beetles are both "cars", that means their sales should be compared to each others. VW's FTW, in that case. I just don't get this thinking however that this is an apples to apples comparison when it is so clearly and defiantly not.

    I look at it very simply: If a gamer who knows enough about all 3 consoles goes to the store to buy one of those consoles, he's not buying a Wii with the same intentions as with a 360 or PS3 - because they don't offer the same experiences whatsoever. Sure they "play games," in the same way VW's and Lambo's both "drive," but you can almost drop any comparisons between them there.
    Edited by 2 at 18/04/08 @ 20:29