Hear that sound? It’s the groan of a billion-dollar corporation losing out to their smallest rival.
The Financial Times has reported that the Nintendo Wii is now the best-selling system worldwide! Its sales exceed that of the Xbox 360 despite Microsoft’s console having a year-long head start. And it’s way ahead of the PS3.
According to them, approximately 9 million Wiis were purchased across the world as of July 31st, which is barely more than the Xbox 360’s total worldwide figure of 8.9 million unit sales. The PS3 is dead last with only an estimated 3.7 million units internationally.
You may think these numbers are low, and if so it’s because these sales number actually reflect SALES. That is, consoles SOLD, not consoles SHIPPED, which is typically what the hardware makers like to use to pump up the numbers. In July for example Microsoft stated that they had shipped 11.5 million Xbox 360’s, which was actually short of it’s projection of 12 million global unit sales. And in May Sony said it had produced . . . PRODUCED(!) 5.5 million PS3s worldwide, although it has since changed the tracking method it uses to account for consoles sold, not made.
If these numbers are accurate, and they very well should be seeing as how numbers of Nintendo’s worldwide Wii domination had surfaced a while back, then this will be the first time Nintendo can claim to be the console leader since the Super Nintendo era! It is safe to assume that things have turned full circle for Nintendo, thanks to the wild concepts of the Wii and DS, who could’ve thunk.
Here’s some interesting numbers of units sold worldwide for past systems:
PS2: 118 million units internationally as of April 2007 (still in production)
Xbox: 23.1 million
GameCube: 22.1 million
Sega Dreamcast: 8.5 million
N64: 29.8 million
PSX: 85.7 million
SNES: 46.5 million
Genesis: 25.8 million
Numbers quoted from the Financial Times