Nintendo Ships 45 Million Wii Systems

via IGN


Nintendo on Thursday released its third quarter financials for its fiscal 2009 and made official, among other details, life to date Wii and DS shipment numbers. Amazingly, since its launch, the company has shipped a staggering 45 million Wii consoles globally. Nintendo said it shipped another 312 million Wii game discs. Meanwhile, it revealed that more than 96 million DS systems have been shipped globally since the portable launched along with 533 million game carts from the publisher.

Wii owners might also be interested to know that the Big N said it has shipped globally 14 million and 13.67 million copies of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii respectively since the two titles launched.

In other news, Nintendo reported nine-month (April to December 2008) global sales of 1,546 billion yen, an increase of almost 17 percent over the same period in 2007. It also reported a 27 percent increase in operating profit over the 2007 time frame. "This marks the fourth consecutive year that Nintendo Co., Ltd. has exceeded the previous results for the same nine month period," the company stated in its financial recap.

Nintendo did, however, cut its yearly sales target for Wii, likely due to the economic crisis. It now expects to sell 26.5 million systems globally this year, down from a projected 27.5 million.

Regarding its '09 forecast, the company offered, "Nintendo will continue to pursue expansion of the gaming audience and provide products that offer unique entertainment that puts smiles on the faces of people of all ages and genders."