Nintendo: Wii Has Highest Software Sales for First 18 Months

More games were purchased in the first 18 months of the Wii's life than any other console's first year and a half, Nintendo said today.

About 50 million games were sold for the Wii in its first 18 months, compared to about 42 million games in the first 18 months of the Playstation 2's life. The Xbox 360 came in at 30 million or so, the Xbox at roughly 28 million and finally the Playstation 3 at about 20 million.

Speaking to a gathering at the Electronic Gaming Summit, Cammie Dunaway, executive video president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, Dunaway used the numbers to launch into a talk about Nintendo's strategy for expanding the market.

Dunaway also showed a chart plotting out the first 18 months of each console's life. According to the chart, about 9.5 million Wii were sold in the first 18 months, 8.5 million PS2, 5.4 million Xbox 360, 5.2 million Xbox and 4.2 Playstation 3.

"While we appreciate the impact the Playstation 2 had on sales and the industry, perhaps we are even more impactful," Dunaway said, adding that there wasn't a single month in the Wii's first year and a half when Nintendo could meet demand.

Update: I just clarified with Nintendo: Those software sales numbers only include boxed games sold at retail and not virtual console or Wii Sports.

http://kotaku.com/5010214/nintendo-w...irst-18-months

And weren't we told that wii users bought less games compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 users?

You might be talking about the tie ratio (games to consoles sold) which on the wii i think is poor (but i'm not totally sure). It's easy to get confused- there are too many figures flying around (always twisted to suit the company releasing them :) )

Go Nintendo!!! Woot!!! Wii Rocks!

i bet greenpeace is pulling their hair out right now:p

way to go Nintendo!:):D

360's tie rate has generally been higher until recently. Wii has been slowly catching up with them a lot lately.