by N Rumas - 05.18.07
In what’s become completely unsurprising news, Nintendo owned yet another month in sales. April saw 1.75 million copies of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl sold in America, as well as 471,000 DS lites and 360,000 Wiis. Here’s the NPD breakdown, via Game|Life:
Nintendo DS - 471,000
Nintendo Wii - 360,000
Sony PS2 - 194,000
Sony PSP - 183,000
Xbox 360 - 174,000
GB Advance - 84,000
Sony PS3 - 82,000
Gamecube - 13,000
Once you factor in what’s going on in Japan, it becomes clear that Wii could forseeably close in on Xbox 360’s total sales in a matter of months. Wowzers. Official NOA press release with words from Reggie after the break.
May 17, 2007
Nintendo News: Nintendo Runs the Table in April Sales
Already riding a streak as America’s No. 1 seller of video game consoles,
No. 1 seller of portable game systems and No. 1 publisher of video games,
Nintendo added more chips to its pile in April — with not just one, but the
country’s four best-selling games.According to independent sales data gathered by the NPD Group, the two
best-selling games in April were Pokemon(R) Diamond and Pokemon(R) Pearl,
exclusively for the Nintendo DS(TM) hand-held game system, followed by Super
Paper Mario(TM) and Wii Play(TM) for the Wii(TM) home video game system.
Combined sales for the two related Pokemon titles exceeded 1.75 million units
in just 14 days of availability during the reporting period.The DS remained the most popular game system of any kind in April, with
projected sales of more than 470,000 units. At the same time, the Wii from
Nintendo, despite nearly universal sold-out status, was still purchased by
twice as many consumers as any other home game console, according to the NPD
data. Unit sales of 360,000 Wii systems in April bring the console’s
installed base in America to nearly 2.5 million in less than six months on the
market.“Nothing is more valuable in the entertainment world than an evergreen
franchise,” says Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO, Nintendo of America.
“These new Pokemon titles have cemented their place alongside the most
enduring intellectual properties of the book, music and movie industries. And
that appeal will expand even further with the introduction of Pokemon(R)
Battle Revolution to our Wii home console next month.”
Wii needs more games NOW, paper mario was weak…
mcheddadi - 05.18.07 12:39 am
Pachi. Pachi. Pachi.
It seems all the systems did pretty well, with Nintendo of course owning the competition.
Seriously, 471,000 DSs! Which reminds me how my friends and I have single-handedly caused many people in our school to buy a DS.
yanipheonu - 05.18.07 12:40 am
Let me get this straight; the GBA outsold the PS3 still. Ladies and gentlemen, a physically reduced SNES is beating the most “advanced” console on the market for this month in America in terms of sales. But that is one hell of a glorified SNES if I might say
Go Gamecube Go!
phantamines - 05.18.07 1:00 am
Where the heck are the PS3 numbers? Unreal. I don’t know what’s more shocking, the Wii and DS dominating the charts week after week, or the fact that the PS3 is not on that list. Honestly, I’m more surprised at how bad the PS3 is performing.
Matthew - 05.18.07 1:00 am
K, I dont feel so bad about letting my gf talk me into getting Pearl. First time trainer yizzurd?
Wii catches 360 in USA in 15.5913978 months. 4cr should run a countdown.
mizzle - 05.18.07 1:01 am
My bad, how the heck did I miss those numbers. I’m extremely tired right now, but still… Sorry about that. The fact still stands though, those numbers are pretty depressing. Something needs to change for Sony, or else I just don’t know…
Matthew - 05.18.07 1:03 am
It’s a shame the Japanese are so disinterested in the 360 (although it’s largely MS’s fault — marketing, not localizing titles, etc). They’re doing well in the other two markets, though, which are clearly more important to them.
As far as the US goes, it certainly isn’t comparing to the Wii, but I feel it’s still doing relatively well. As far as a lot of people seem to be concerned, the 360 doesn’t even have its killer app yet… it will be interesting to see what sort of jump will happen when Halo 3 hits in September. If it doesn’t explode then, I don’t know what will make it do so.
Either way, assuming this pace keeps up, Wii is clearly going to be in first place. I have to wonder if the PS3 is ever going to make it up. FFXIII will help, as will MGS (although Splinter Cell is arguably more popular nowadays in terms of sales, it seems and the next one is 360 only).
It’s kind of surprising how all of this is turning out.
Tony - 05.18.07 1:17 am
This is all well and good, but Wii needs a big summer release to keep the momentum going into the fall season.
*MP3 I’m looking @ you>:(*
silkylove - 05.18.07 3:23 am
BTW, here’s the Canadian #s. Pretty much the same trend on a smaller scale with the Wi and Ds flip flopping positions:
Wii 42,100
DS 34,900
PS2 18,000
360 12,800
PSP 12,100
GBA 7,900
PS3 7,200
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/canada/
silkylove - 05.18.07 3:44 am
I wonder if those 13,000 Gamecubes were all purchased by clueless grandparent’s who knew their grandkids wanted “one of those Nintendos.”
…then again, they probably know what a Wii is since they are part of a Wii bowling league at the old folks home.
Drew Kora - 05.18.07 8:44 am
sony might just start to score some “underdog” points if this keeps up. unreal.
sean but not heard - 05.18.07 9:22 am
This is all well and good until people realize that the Wii doesn’t have that many great games to play on it. Most are half-baked ports or not even (looking at you Far Cry…for shame) with some tacked on motion control. Not exactly the revolution I had imagined…
Yet, I remind myself of the DS and how it got its mojo back after the first year of release. Third-party support is great, as is first-party support. Here’s hoping for better days ahead.
DCSimian - 05.18.07 10:15 am
“This is all well and good until people realize that the Wii doesn’t have that many great games to play on it.”
It doesn’t matter if there aren’t that many great games, as long as the few great games it has are truly great - hence, it’s a huge success.
Dean - 05.18.07 10:32 am
DEAN, I totally agree with you on that one. Very true.
Matthew - 05.18.07 10:44 am
“sony might just start to score some “underdog” points if this keeps up. unreal.”
lol, well said.
N Rumas - 05.18.07 11:16 am
Silkylove: Japanese wealth & population is 4x Canada’s yet their console buying numbers are 10x Canada’s? Wow, those Nihonese really like to game a lot more than we do.
Max - 05.18.07 1:11 pm
MAX: Japanese sales for the Wii are 52,544. If you go by population, there are more Wii per capita in Canada than in Japan.
The numbers up here in the original article are for the US.
The population in the US is around 301 million people. In Canada, it’s about 32 million. So it’s about the same rate of sales. 10X more in the US, where the population is 10X higher.
Herbert West - 05.18.07 3:19 pm
These numbers will continue to get crazier when we see all the big hits for the Wii come out later this year.
geekrecon - 05.18.07 6:46 pm
people have probably spent more on ps3s with that small a number than Wiis due to the price, though….
666 - 05.18.07 10:02 pm
@Herbert
Japanese Wii sales last week were abbout half of the normal sales because they are still low on stock after the madness that was Golden Week.
silkylove - 05.18.07 10:43 pm
http://www.cubed3.com/news/7498/
silkylove - 05.18.07 10:43 pm