Nintendo's Wii Sells Over One Million Units In Just Nine Months To Become Fastest Ever Selling Home Console In UK History

Landmark home console sales figure reached to further highlight Nintendo's resurgence in the UK video games market

30th August 2007 – Figures released today courtesy of the UK’s leading independent music, video and software performance and sales tracking company, Chart Track, show Nintendo’s home console ‘Wii’ is now being enjoyed by over one million people in the UK, becoming the fastest ever selling home console in UK videogame history to reach this milestone. Wii has passed the one million sales figure in just 38 weeks, some 11 weeks faster than the Playstation 2 which took 50 weeks to pass the million selling milestone and 22 weeks faster than Xbox 360 which took 60 weeks to reach one million UK sales.*

Just like Nintendo DS, Wii has been selling irrespective of the traditional video game industry’s seasonality. As the customer bases for Nintendo DS and Wii expand, it is not only traditional gamers but also new and expanded audiences who do not care about seasonality or launch dates of new games who are buying DS and Wii. This unprecedented trend has been created by the disruptive and revolutionary nature of Nintendo DS and Wii. In addition, the range of software titles which are available for both systems are clearly appealing to both avid gamers and new gamers of all ages.

Going into the crucial Christmas season, Nintendo’s momentum shows no signs of slowing down with a recent week’s UK console market shares for Wii and Nintendo DS Lite standing at 68% and 86% of the home and handheld console markets respectively – further highlighting Nintendo’s resurgence in the UK video games market.***

Commenting on the performance of Wii in the UK, David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK said:

"The non-stop demand for Wii even in the traditionally slow sales periods for video games in the UK is clearly behind this record breaking achievement. The performance of both systems appears to indicate that unprecedented interactive entertainment experiences, provided by a combination of the revolutionary nature of DS and Wii with the increasing number of unique software titles for the system from Nintendo and third parties, are being enjoyed by both avid and new gamers of all ages.

With more great games such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and Endless Ocean launching in 2007, Wii, together with Nintendo DS, will continue to be the main driving forces behind the expansion of the video game market this year."

Nintendo’s Touch! Generations range, a selection of innovative software titles designed to appeal to people of all ages and gaming experience, even those who may have never even played before, features a raft of already hugely successful titles including Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain?, Big Brain Academy, 42 All-Time Classics, Nintendogs, Electroplankton, Sudoku Master, Actionloop and Tetris DS.

Wii is available now at the estimated retail price of £179. Nintendo DS Lite is available now in black, white and pink priced at around £99. For all the latest information on Nintendo and Touch! Generation titles please visit www.touchgenerations.com