Did you hear? Nintendo had a nice Christmas, giving 5 million good girls and boys Wiis and Nintendo DSs, smashing records left and right. Defensibly, Nintendo would like to brag about its accomplishments now.
In its follow-up to NPD sales data that showed Nintendo moving 2 million Wiis and 3 million DSs in the United States, the company points out its many success. It sold over 20 million hardware units in 2008, 10.17 million of those Wiis. That's never been done before, Nintendo says, with the two platforms breaking the previous record set by its own Nintendo DS in 2007. It sold 8.52 million units that year. Huzzah!
Nintendo puts it all in perspective, pointing out that Wii was responsible for 55% of all "next generation" home console sales in 2008, with the DS taking 72% of the portable pie.
It even racked up 132 million games sold on Nintendo hardware alone, third-parties included. The bragging is simply too much! You'll have to read the official statement while I recover...
Wii & Nintendo DS Set New Industry Records
Wii Sells 10.17 Million Units & DS Sells 9.95 Million Units in a Year
REDMOND, Wash.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Before 2008, no video game system had ever been purchased by ten million Americans in a single year. But according to independent sales data released today by the NPD Group, the Wii? console from Nintendo did just that, even during these economic times, with 2008 unit sales of 10.17 million. The Nintendo DS? portable handheld system came in a close second, with 2008 unit sales of 9.95 million. Each of them broke the previous yearly unit sales record set in 2007 by Nintendo DS with sales of 8.52 million.
Consequently, Wii represented 55% of all next generation home console sales in 2008, while Nintendo DS claimed 72% of all portable system sales in 2008.
“Our type of entertainment has now moved to the point where there is no longer a question that if you offer consumers an expanded definition of what a video game can be, and deliver that idea with quality and affordability in mind, millions of new people will start playing video games,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Concepts like Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band never would have seemed feasible just a few years ago, and now they’re driving growth for our the entire industry.”
NPD data released for December and all of 2008 also included the following:
* The industry’s top 4 selling games of 2008 were: Wii Play? at No. 1, Mario Kart? Wii at No. 2, Wii Fit? at No.3, and Super Smash Brothers? Brawl, at No. 4.
* Industry annual revenues jumped 19% in 2008 over 2007, and Nintendo products were responsible for 99% of those additional retail dollars.
* Nintendo DS set another industry record for system sales in any month, with 3.04 million units sold in December.
* Wii broke its own monthly record, set in December 2007, by selling 2.14 million units last month.
* In December, Nintendo titles filled 20 of the top 30 spots on the best-seller list. Six games made for Nintendo systems placed in the top 10, including Wii Music? for Wii (No. 9), which has now sold 865,000 units following its launch in October 2008, and Mario Kart DS for the Nintendo DS (No. 7), which has sold a total of 4.3 million units 38 months after launch.
* Activision’s Guitar Hero? III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero? World Tour, and MTV Games/EA’s* Rock Band Special Edition Bundle all sold more units on Nintendo platforms than any other platforms in 2008.
* More 3rd party units were sold for Wii than any other home consoles in December for the 2nd consecutive month.
* For the year, more than 132 million games were sold in America for play on Nintendo systems.
For more information about Nintendo, visit www.Nintendo.com.
About Nintendo: The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii? and Nintendo DS? systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System?, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.8 billion video games and more than 480 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii and Nintendo DS, as well as the Game Boy?, Game Boy Advance, Super NES?, Nintendo 64? and Nintendo GameCube?. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario?, Donkey Kong?, Metroid?, Zelda? and Pokémon?. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.