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Wii Fit may surpass San Andreas sales, Wii Play is top selling 'game' of the last 10 years

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 13th 2009 at 7:30PM }

Wii Fit is on the verge of becoming the second-highest selling "game" in the US of the last 10 years. IGN reports on NPD data, revealing that Wii Fit has reached 7.9 million sales, passing by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's 6.9 million and creeping up quickly on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' 8.25 million units. The only thing ready to kill Wii Fit's momentum is Wii Fit Plus, which will replace the previous version at retail.

Some out there are probably ready to argue that Wii Fit should not be counted among other games. Yeah, those folks are going to pitch a fit about the top seller: Wii Play. The controller-bundled "software" holds the crown, having reached 11.1 million sales. We can't wait to see how the Vitality Sensor does.

Gallery: Wii Fit

Top five best sellers for 2009 tracked for each console

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 20th 2009 at 11:15PM }

Finding it hard to get interested in the June NPDs? Perhaps a visual aide from the folks at Gamasutra will help boost your enthusiasm. They've compiled the sales figures from all of 2009's NPD charts to find the top five best-selling games of the year thus far on each of the three home consoles.

The big winner so far on the PS3 is Killzone 2, trailed closely by Resident Evil 5. On the 360, Resident Evil 5 is currently in the lead, followed by a surprising contender -- UFC 2009: Undisputed. The Wii's current leader is -- who'd have thunk it? -- Wii Fit, followed by Wii Play. For the full five for each platform, check out Gamasutra's writeup.

Top brands of 2008 owned by Nintendo, EA, Activision, and not Sony

by JC Fletcher { Jun 30th 2009 at 9:00PM }

Wedbush Morgan Securities' 2009 industry report includes a list of the top thirty brands of 2008. The report notes that of the companies whose brands appear on the list, Nintendo, EA, and Activision were the only three with more than one brand to generate over $100 million at retail in the US last year.

And boy, did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero -- perhaps you've heard of it -- was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros. and Rock Band, generated $761 million and $662 million, respectively.

One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of brands after the break.

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10 million accept Wii Play with Wiimote purchase

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 20th 2009 at 2:40PM }

Nintendo brings word that its Wii Play software has sold over 10 million units in the United States. When combined with the 12.7 million Wiimotes sold individually, that's a whole lot of people waggling together in living rooms and old folks' homes.

Nintendo's EVP of Sales & Marketing Cammie Dunaway says, "Even if you believe people are buying Wii Play solely for the controller ..." No, that's not what anybody with more than 512MB under their hood believes. People are buying the controller solely for Wii Play. We're sure it looks lovely to see Wii Play at the top of the NPD's software sales list month after month, but we all know that's based on a fabrication of what's the real star in that product bundle. Of course, all of this is debatable.

December NPD: Slowdown

by Chris Greenhough { Jan 15th 2009 at 9:00PM }

It's not surprising to see that hardware sales rose significantly in December, but what is surprising is the comparatively small progress made by the Wii -- only a 5% increase from November, compared to some big gains for the competition. People who are paid a lot more than us predicted the Wii would smash the 3 million sales barrier, but nope. We're putting this down to a lack of holiday season supply, or November's figures simply being amazing.

On the other hand, selling 2.15 million of anything in a single month isn't too shabby!

- DS: 3.04m

1.47m (94%)
- Wii: 2.15m

110K (5%)
- Xbox 360: 1.44m

604K (72%)
- PSP: 1.02m

599K (142%)
- PS3: 726K

348K (92%)
- PS2: 410K

204K (99%)

December's best-selling games are past the fold, along with 2008's top sellers. Spoiler: Nintendo software kicked ass.

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Wii Play back on top of UK sales charts this week

by David Hinkle { Jan 6th 2009 at 5:37PM }

Wii Play has finally regained its spot at the top of the charts in the UK, as it has bested previous top-seller Mario Kart Wii this week. Not since February of last year has Wii Play been the top dog in the UK, which is just plain surprising, if you ask us. Sure, we may not all agree on the bundle's worth, but it's still a pretty tempting package, especially to someone who hasn't even tried the bundled software for 5 minutes, gotten bored, and wandered off to make a sandwich.

Gallery: Wii Play

Wii Warm Up: Wii Continue Playing

by JC Fletcher { Dec 15th 2008 at 8:00AM }

Wii Play. About half of US Wii owners have a copy, and it's just as popular around the world. That means that you probably have it! Getting an extra set of games for $10 when you buy a second (essential) controller is pretty compelling.

If you are a Wii Play owner, do you still get the disc out occasionally? Which games have endured? And, for context, how long have you had the thing? In our last Wii Play post we heard some support for the Tanks! minigame, a sentiment we certainly share. We'd be all about an expanded WiiWare Tanks!

Gallery: Wii Play

7.9 million American Wii owners didn't mind getting Wii Play with their controllers

by JC Fletcher { Dec 12th 2008 at 5:21PM }

Most people buy multiple controllers for their game systems. That's more of an anecdotal or common-sense conclusion than one based on statistics, but we think it holds. Even people who live alone generally like to have a second controller around for company. And with the Wii's status as a party system, a lot of people are likely to have third and fourth controllers as well.

Nintendo found a way to get many of these controller sales to count as software in NPD: by bundling controllers with a game and adding just $10 to the price. And the strategy has worked. Nintendo told Gamasutra that since the product's launch in February of last year, 7.9 million copies of Wii Play have been sold in the US. That's more than half the number of Wii systems sold in the US (15.4 million).

We like the cow racing game.

Gallery: Wii Play

November NPD: Double Megaton

by JC Fletcher { Dec 12th 2008 at 9:00AM }

In October, the Wii was the top-selling console in the US, with 800,000 systems sold. Then in November, Nintendo sold 2.04 million Wii systems. No, wait, that's not right -- it needs italics, bolding, and underlining.

2.04 million Wiis. In one month. This is what happens when Black Friday and adequate stock meet. It's a record for November, obviously. Is this the turning point for the Wii? Is this when it starts to eclipse the mighty DS Lite for good? Who knows? We're too dazzled by big numbers to analyze.

Unsurprisingly, the surge in Wii sales meant great numbers for Wii Play, because people tend to like having multiple controllers. Much more unexpected is the appearance of Wii Music in the software top 10. It's not a Wii Fit or Wii Play-caliber hit by any means, but some people bought it. Also on the subject of Wii music, the Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour was the only version to make it into the top 10. No Animal Crossing, though. Check after the break for the top 10 list.

- Wii: 2.04m

1.237m (154%)
- DS: 1.57m

1.079m (220%)
- Xbox 360: 836K

465K (125%)
- PSP: 421K

228K (118%)
- PS3: 378K

188K (99%)
- PS2: 206K

70K (51%)

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Top 5: Nintendo's Worst

by Kaes Delgrego { Dec 8th 2008 at 12:00PM }

15 days ago, Guns N' Roses released their comically delayed album Chinese Democracy, giving hope to those who are still awaiting Duke Nukem Forever. Unfortunately, anyone looking for another Appetite for Destruction will be disappointed, as the new album's overcoming of its absurd delay overshadowed the album itself. One should question the album's association to the same band of twenty years ago, as Velvet Revolver contains more members of that legendary set. A more accurate title would be "Axl Rose solo project with some Buckethead." After hearing the album, I can confirm that it deserves a hearty "meh." If you truly consider this to be a Guns N' Roses album (which I'm not so sure that I do), it's undoubtedly their worst.

This got me thinking about the bottom rungs of other quality serial productions. Being the nerd that I am, it didn't take long for thoughts to drift towards gaming. We're all aware that it's a bit redundant to bash Nintendo as a company. But one aspect of the Big N which is almost never called into question is the quality of their games. Certainly there's always a few outliers which stray from conventional feelings just for disarray's sake, and good for them. Yet one would have to be certifiably bonkers to label anything from the main Zelda or Mario series as a truly terrible game. But like anyone who hasn't sold their soul to the devil, there's bound to be a few slip-ups. When you're talking about a history as enormous to gaming as Nintendo's, it'd be suspicious if there wasn't a blotch here or there.

These aren't quite at the top of the "worst games of all time" list, but they'd certainly be if the list was Nintendo-exclusive.

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The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.

2008's best-sellers revealed, familiar outcome ensues

by Chris Greenhough { Nov 17th 2008 at 7:10PM }

Gamasutra has compiled a bunch of charts showing the best-selling games of 2008 (so far) across all formats. At first glance, the results are thoroughly predictable -- it's yet more Wii dominance in the U.S. -- but there are interesting factoids to be drawn from this.

Wii Play, for example, looks like finishing in the top five games of the year for the second year running. Even more impressively, Gamasutra thinks it could sell more copies in 2008 than in 2007, which is all kinds of crazy. Surely that would be some kind of first?

The top two spots are held by Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, a pair of titles that we always expected to sell well, but to beat the likes of Wii Fit or other games aimed at Nintendo's broadened audience? Speaking of Wii Fit, it tops the chart for estimated revenue so far this year, thanks to its higher retail price. We'll reproduce the 2008 YTD sales table below, but Gamasutra has other data worth looking at here.

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) -- 3.5 million
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) -- 3.4 million
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (360) -- 3.2 million
4. Wii Play (Wii) -- 3.0 million
5. Wii Fit (Wii) -- 2.8 million

Gallery: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Report: Wii games dominate top 5 US sellers in '08 (so far)

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Nov 17th 2008 at 7:00PM }

Still obsessing over sales statistics, Gamasutra has crafted a report on 2008's five top-selling games in the US -- so far. Though some figures are approximated, there's assurance that "the maximum possible error in each figure should not affect the rankings." All consoles considered, the rankings are as follows:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (3.5 million, estimated)
Mario Kart (3.4 million)
Grand Theft Auto IV (3.2 million, estimated)
Wii Play (3 million)
Wii Fit (2.8 million)

Be sure to check out the report for further details, several of which are likely to fuel the fanboy fires for, oh, the next fifteen minutes at least. We look forward to entertaining your "Wii games don't sell," "GTA IV is overrated" and "Wii Play is just a controller in disguise" arguments. We do not, however, want anything to do with your "Why isn't Golden Axe: Beast Rider on there?" madness.

Circuit City does buy one, get one 50% off sale on Wii games

by David Hinkle { Oct 13th 2008 at 10:48AM }

For those of you with some extra money burning a hole in your pocket, know that Circuit City has a sale running from now until this upcoming Saturday. When you purchase any Wii game at full price, you can get a second game for 50% off. The sale also works with Wii Play, if you're not among the folks who've already purchased the bundle.

Need some suggestions? Mario Kart Wii is a good choice (and you can play with us at Game Night!), as well as Wario Land: Shake It! (which we're pretty fond of). There's also ... actually, just head on over there. The list of games is fairly long.

[Via GamerDeals]

NPD dishes out the 5 top-selling Wii games of this year

by David Hinkle { Sep 23rd 2008 at 3:28PM }

When we think of what games could possibly be the top 5 for the Wii, it doesn't seem like there's much room for mystery. Those that follow the monthly NPD numbers will likely be able to recite the top 5, in order, off the top of their heads. So, let's get to it!

The top 5 games of 2008 so far according to the NPD are:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mario Kart Wii (with wheel)
Wii Play
Wii Fit (with Balance Board)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with guitar)

We're amazed at how well GH3 still continues to do on the Wii. Obviously, Wii Play is no surprise, as it's a constant fixture in the top software titles month after month. And we have a feeling that Wii Fit would be higher on the list if only more people could actually find it.

NPD reveals Top 5 console games of '08 ... so far

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 23rd 2008 at 1:00PM }

As we head into the last stretch of the year, which is synonymous with a glut of titles flooding the market, it's worth seeing what the top titles in 2008 were up to this point. Gamasutra, using data from NPD, has posted the Top 5 titles for consoles up until August. Don't expect any surprises: Grand Theft Auto IV is in the top spot for PS3 and Xbox 360, while Super Smash Bros. Brawl is champion on the Wii.

The Wii certainly is the most interesting of the lists, with four out of the five SKUs belonging to games with included with some sort of peripheral (Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Wii Play and Guitar Hero III). Gamasutra also estimates that the software sales of the top five Wii titles combined is about 12 million units, nearly double that of the top five on the other consoles (separately). Of course, the year isn't over yet.