The game that sparked the revolution!
Title: Wii Sports
Platform: Wii
Year: 2006
Final Vote Percentage: 61.11%
It’s rare when a video game ever comes along and captures the imaginations of not only gamers, but the global populace at large. When Nintendo launched its Wii console with this pack-in title in the holiday season of 2006, I’m not even sure they knew quite how popular Wii Sports would become. Wii Sports deserves a spot in any video game Hall of Fame, because of how it changed the industry. In many regards, it’s possibly the best “tech demo” of all time, simultaneously demonstrating what Wii’s motion controls were capable of, and being attractive enough as a standalone game to sell millions of consoles.
Wii Sports was so popular that Nintendo’s rivals soon responded with their own motion controlled sports sims, hoping to cash in on the trend Nintendo had started with this simple, yet addicting game. It was popular not just with Nintendo’s core fans, however, but in various living rooms, college dorms, and retirement homes around the world. Wii Sports was truly a game for anyone and everyone, which shows in its staggering sales numbers. The title has sold over 82 million units in its existence, making it the best-selling console exclusive video game of all time.
On top of all of this, Wii Sports proved right out of the gate that motion controls could actually work. They felt natural and, best of all, incredibly fun to use. Anyone who doubted the core concept of Nintendo Wii needed only to grab a Wii remote and start a social game of Bowling to see the potential in Nintendo’s new hardware. For a time, Wii Sports was a phenomenon, which is something that very few games, even legendary ones, ever achieve.
