Wii storms closer to 25 million mark

By Robert Purchese Published 24 April, 2008

While DS ploughs past 70 million.

Nintendo has aired its financial laundry and flaunted profits of nearly 50 percent for 2007.

Its year came to a close at the end of March, and saw combined lifetime hardware sales of Wii and DS climb to over 95 million around the world.

Specifically, Wii sold 18.61 million units in 2007, taking its lifetime total to 24.45 million. Star performers for the console were Wii Fit with 1.85 million sales, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl with 4.85 million sales.

Oldies Wii Sports, Wii Play, Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Party 8 were also given a special mention.

Million-sellers for the console rose from 5 to 26.

The DS sold 30.31 million units in 2007, bolstering its lifetime total to 70.6 million. Key players here were Pokémon Diamond/Pearl shifting 9.56 million copies (14.77 million to date), and Brain Training/Brain Training 2 duo combining to reach 11.81 million sales (23.81 million to date).

Special mentions went to The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Mario Party DS, as well as oldies Nintendogs and New Super Mario Bros.

Million-sellers for the handheld rose from 30 to 57.

All of that means lots and lots of money; total sales therefore amounted to JPY 1.67 trillion (USD 16.1 billion), with profit reaching JPY 257 billion (USD 2.48 billion).

As for the year ahead, Nintendo pointed towards downloadable service WiiWare as a fresh stream of revenue. Also, smiling families.

"Nintendo has positioned Wii as a machine that puts smiles on surrounding people's faces by encouraging positive interaction among family members in the living room," reads the financial report.

"In addition to existing software lineups, Nintendo will develop entertainment which is relevant to our daily lives. Nintendo will launch WiiWare which will provide a variety of new and unique software titles to be purchased and downloaded to Wii hardware in the US and Europe.

"Nintendo DS remains positioned as a machine that enriches the owners' daily lives. Nintendo's strategy is to accelerate the current sales momentum from must-have for every family to must-have for everyone by continuously introducing new and unique software introducing new services which take advantage of its expanded installed base," added the report.

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.

You may also like...

Comments (42) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • RMXtreme #1 4 years ago

    So this is EUROgamer and we get dollars & yen?

  • Skooch #2 4 years ago

    Wow Wii!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 4 years ago

    Quite impressive. I also didn't expect 26 titles to sell over a million. Even if two of them are Wii Play and Wii Sports that leaves quite a lot of games.

  • miiiguel #4 4 years ago

    "So this is EUROgamer and we get dollars & yen?"
    They're talking to MS and Sony. Europe better do a console, other we will always be puppets.

  • Xerx3s #5 4 years ago

    Wow, that thing is a fucking monster. 0_o

  • hrodelbert #6 4 years ago

    i'm happy for them

  • mooseman721 #7 4 years ago

    That is one hell of a lot of consoles shifted. It's still shite though :)

  • Crea #8 4 years ago

    Good on them, but yeah, my Wii gets dusted off at family gatherings and that's about it, these days.

  • peterfll #9 4 years ago

    That's a lotta hardware.

    I was wondering - did Super Mario Galaxy sell well in the end? I remember reports after launch saying it had sold the least of any Mario title to date.

  • Bartacus #10 4 years ago

    I played the Wii yesterday at a friends place.
    It's not really gaming in the traditional sense it's all waggling for mums, kids & grannies. I was so pleased I hadn't succumbed to the fad & bought 1.

    Well done to Nintendo though as they are raking it in but the games i played were the gaming equivalent of a stick of rock, sweet but good only for 5 minutes.

    For proper games it has to be the 360 or PS3.

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #11 4 years ago

    /briefly watches the weeping trolls post their usual shite
    /goes back to playing Mario Kart, No More Heroes, PES 2008, Zack & Wiki and Mario Galaxy

  • Xerx3s #12 4 years ago

    /plays solitaire

    HA! TAKE THAT!

  • CaptainScarlet #13 4 years ago

    "For proper games it has to be the 360 or PS3."

    Lol, there must be a special definition online somewhere that states what counts as a proper game :)

    At the moment my time is completely taken up with Kart and Metroid on the Wii. My 360 is just a streaming media slave at the moment.
    Edited by 1 at 24/04/08 @ 12:19

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #14 4 years ago

    /plays solitaire

    HA! TAKE THAT!

    Don't mess with me boy...

    /plays minesweeper

  • Nikanoru #15 4 years ago

    Ooh the fantards are out again.

  • Katsumoto #16 4 years ago

    Ok so this doesn't turn into another 200 page comment nightmare (because sales figures are so much more interesting than, y'know, actual games), let me wrap things up:

    Lolwiihasnogameslolonlygirlsandgranniesplaythisshitlol360has mansgameslikehalolol123123131231313. Gimmicklol.

    Okay, now we can all move on!

  • secombe #17 4 years ago

    Fantards indeed, they've conveniently glossed over the fact it has the greatest football game made for over a decade, a wonderfully simple online gaming model that works almost perfectly (see Mario Kart) amongst plenty of other great titles.

    I'm literally struggling to keep up only having 5-10 hours per week to put into it.

  • Crea #18 4 years ago

    The above comment is the verbal equivalent of a hand grenade.

  • BadBoyBonner #19 4 years ago

    Just goes to show how open the masses are to the reception of innovation if done right.

    The boundary is not if all humans like to play (clearly we do otherwise entertainment wouldn't exist) but how easily, and thus instinctively, people are allowed to interface and interact with that fun or virtual world.

    Wait until voice recognition and AI parsers are able to hold coherent conversations - expect most females to suddenly become massive RPG fans and sales to rocket.

    In less than 10 years, not being able to talk to your computer will no doubt feel as alien as being able to talk to it now is.

  • Arnold__ #20 4 years ago

    Well done, those are truely amazing numbers, a lot of happy shareholders I bet. Looking to the future, whats next for Ninty? Bankruptcy/take over from Microsoft at some point during the next hardware cycle springs to mind. You can only catch the kids/mums/grannies with a gimmick once, somehow I do not think they will buy Wii2, unless Ninty can come up with another cheap toy. I just hope this doesnt mean the next iteration of the PS3/X360 will be dumbed down as well.

  • crazyhorse174 #21 4 years ago

    ^^ 2nd the last bit of the above comment.

  • secombe #22 4 years ago

    What's to say these people see it as a gimmick? All the 'ultra-casual' Wii owners at work (and there are many) still play them almost every day, and half of them have had one for at least a year. Nintendo keep adding new 'gimmicks' (Wii Fit Board, Mario Kart + Wheel) which keep people coming back for more...and all this when most 3rd parties still haven't taken the Wii remotely seriously.

    The DS had a similar start but has gone from strength to strength, why would we need a Wii 2 anytime soon? Graphics clearly don't matter that much, so any major update seems pointless in light of the current success.
    Edited by 1 at 24/04/08 @ 13:23

  • Les #23 4 years ago

    What surprises me the most is that people around here appear to be surprised...

  • defdaz #24 4 years ago

    >What surprises me the most is that people around here appear to be surprised...

    And what surprises me is that you're surprised that most people around here appear to be surprised. I think?

  • Les #25 4 years ago

    "The above comment is the verbal equivalent of a hand grenade."

    No, it's just babbling of someone that's mentally challenged...

  • Les #26 4 years ago

    "And what surprises me is that you're surprised that most people around here appear to be surprised. I think?"

    I don't know, you're the one who thinks it... ;)

    But this news shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone a bit more intelligent than the average fanboy and with a bit of interest in video games...

  • pikemon #27 4 years ago

    Excellent. After waggle and wheel traditional controls feel just silly and constrained.

    It's very interesting to see how the console wars play out. I guess the industry as a whole keeps growing... but the most critical forms of innovation keep coming from the traditional source. Not to downplay stuff like XBOX Live.

  • SEVQA #28 4 years ago

    Fils-Aime face looks like its made out of latex or somthing! is guy even real?

  • lambtron #29 4 years ago

    They should just rename the Wii the MoneyHoover.

    It would be a more fitting moniker.

  • Fuser #30 4 years ago

    @dream - absolutely hilarious comment - spat my drink out!

  • smelly #31 4 years ago

    "Doesn't change the fact that its a shit piece of hardware, has shit games and is purchased by absolute twats."

    Come on.. the 360 isnt THAT bad.

  • Weezer #32 4 years ago

    Really makes the 360 v PS3 arguments a bit pointless (not that it ever had a point, but you get the idea...)
    Edited by 1 at 24/04/08 @ 16:45

  • anomagnus #33 4 years ago

    you'd think with ALL the money they make, Nintendo might employ a quality control team

  • Pac-man-ate-my-wife #34 4 years ago

    Just don't play the shit games. It really is that easy.

  • murphy245 #35 4 years ago

    ds at 70 million!! christ last time i looked it was 40 million

  • cyber_nicco #36 4 years ago

    Yes, and cars with automatic transmissions outsell ones with manuals in many demographics. Does that make them better?

    I chose the transmission analogy very, very carefully...
    Edited by 1 at 24/04/08 @ 17:29

  • Nabokov #37 4 years ago

    "Yes, and cars with automatic transmissions outsell ones with manuals in many demographics. Does that make them better?"
    Yes, yes it does. Good analogy.

  • hugejeans #38 4 years ago

    I work in an Asda delivery warehouse.Some how we have a Wii demo pod in this little internet room we have.
    You would be amazed how popular it is,all its running is Wii sports.
    Some of the blokes playing this you would never dream of going near a console.And loads have brought a Wii for home use now.

    Diss the Wii all you like but Nintendo have done their homework on who they are trying to attract with this and they are buying it

  • Les #39 4 years ago

    "Diss the Wii all you like"

    Don't pay attention to the fanboys that see their console being beaten in the console race. They're just frustrated.

  • Zuiyo #40 4 years ago

    "They're talking to MS and Sony. Europe better do a console, other we will always be puppets."

    I think you might have pressed a button there. N-Gage is the closest we have to a games specific hardware created in Europe, and I honestly believe we can do better than that. Where's Philips, Thomson and Braun when you need them?

  • Zuiyo #41 4 years ago

    A car with automatic transmission is an insult. A blasphemy.

    Anybody that buys a car with manual transmission should be forced to listen to a Girls Aloud album for 24 hours straight.

    Wait, maybe the do already...

  • secombe #42 4 years ago

    Although it has to be said that there are some very very good automatic transmissions out there now, the latest Evo details them extensively and there aren't many supercars without a well thought-out auto box these days. Although technically I guess they are semi-automatic, where does that come into it?