Topic: Wii titles are doing better than expected...

[NWR_pap64]

As I said in the Metroid Prime 3 thread while doing research on potential GOTY nominees I found some very interesting sales numbers. People keep saying that Wii games are flopping and that third parties are not seeing success on the console. Well, the numbers paint a different picture...

Here are some Wii exclusives, first party and third party titles and their sales numbers (NOTE: I am only including 2007 titles):
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves: 2.14 million worldwide, 800,000 + in the US

Wii Play: 8.37 million worldwide, 3 plus million in the US (But we ALL knew that :p)

Sonic and the secret rings: 810,000 worldwide, 300,000 in the US (Despite all the crap it got :p)

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07: 750, 000 worldwide, 300,000 in the US

Cooking mama Cook Off: 570,000 worldwide, 260,000 in the US

Super Paper Mario: 1.99 million worldwide, 920,00 + in the US

Spiderman: The Movie 3: 410,000 in the US (They didn't list any other areas. And despite being the worst version of the game it did well...)

Mario Party 8: 3.96 million worldwide, 1 million + in the US

Resident Evil 4 Wii edition: 1.29 million worldwide, 630,000 in the US (Pretty impressive for a game that is 2 years old now and available on nearly every system)

Pokemon Battle Revolution: 810,000 worldwide, 350,000 + in the US

Big Brain Academy Wii Degree: 1.59 million worldwide, 420,000 in the US

Mario Strikers Charged: 1.10 million worldwide, 490,000 + in the US

Madden NFL 08 (Wii version): 410,000 in the US (NOTE: The other versions sold better, yes, but considering its cheap to develop for the Wii EA must have made some profit off it)

Carnival Games: 390,000 in the US (The biggest surprise story of the year, folks!)

My Sims: 640,000 worldwide, 330,000 + in the US

Naruto: Clash of the Ninja Revolution: 220,000 in the US (Pretty good for a niche franchise fighter)

Guitar Hero III: 1.21 million in the US (Its still selling, despite sound and controller issues. I say that's impressive!)

The Simpsons Game: 430,000 worldwide, 220,000 in the US (Again, the other versions sold better, but still did well)

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: 2.28 million worldwide, 770,000 + in the US (This title gained a MAJOR boost during the Holiday season)

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn: 360,000 worldwide, 190,000 + in the US (That's pretty good for a franchise whose only exposure was through Super Smash Bros. Also, the game has yet to be released in Europe)

Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga: 560,000 worldwide,  360,000 + in the US (This outperformed the XBOX 360 version!)

High School Musical Sing it!: 490,000 worldwide, 300,000 + in the US

Super Mario Galaxy: 4.29 million worldwide, 2 million plus in the US (This is another title that gained a boost during the holidays)

Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles: 670,000 worldwide, 250,000 + in the US

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: 540,000 worldwide, 250,000 + in the US

Need for Speed: ProStreet: 330,000 worldwide, 130,00 + in the US

Link's Crossbow Training: 620,000 worldwide (They don't show the overall sales per area. Considering that you can only get this game by buying the zapper that means that a lot of zappers were sold too)

So that's 27 Wii titles that can be considered a success. 9 of them sold over half a million copies and 10 titles that have sold over a million copies.

If you ask me, those are some very impressive numbers! But let's be fair for a moment...

First, I haven't listed the games that are certified "flops". Second, in the case of some multiplatform third party games the PS2 and XBOX 360 versions sold better. Third, some of these games are not as important as other titles or aim towards a family audience. Finally, I don't know what type of expectations developers had when making these Wii games so even if they sold incredibly well they might still be considered a flop.

But remember, developing for the Wii is MUCH more cheaper than developing for the PS3 and 360 and must have had much smaller budgets, therefore some of these titles must have made some profit. Hell, the Wii versions might have made more money than the best selling XBOX 360 versions!

Also, many of these titles had little to no exposure at all and had to rely on word of mouth for them to be recognized. In the case of the third party games most of the time the 360 version got the most exposure, so when the Wii version does well on its own I can help but be happy.

The reason I am doing this is because there seems to be a confusion on certain parts of the net. Some people and editorials are saying that certain Wii games are not doing as well as they should be. While part of that is true once again many games are considerable Wii hits. Also, not every XBOX 360 or PS3 game is doing fantastically. Hell, Bioshock, despite it being a highly acclaimed and hyped title, has not sold as well as people expected.

I'll post the numbers of the "flops" later as I am tired from looking through all the numbers, but I hope this gives you a good idea.  

[GoldenPhoenix]

Impressive numbers actually. Heck even games that cross the 150k mark are no slouches either, especially on Wii.

[IceCold]

Heh, you know it's quite possible that the day will come when WiiPlay passes Super Mario Bros 3 as the best-selling non-pack-in game ever.

Of course, it has the controller, but still.. it will always have great sales because it's one of the first purchases for new Wii owners. And we all know how many of those there are.  

[Kairon]

I took a look at VG Chartz estimates and it seems as if the numbers of titles the Wii has over 1 million is about half of that number that the XBox 360 has. The number of games over 500,000 worldwide is also half of the corresponding XBox 360 number. Given that the XBox 360 is twice as old as the Wii, it looks like the blue ocean really does buy games like everybody else.

[NWR_pap64]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
I took a look at VG Chartz estimates and it seems as if the numbers of titles the Wii has over 1 million is about half of that number that the XBox 360 has. The number of games over 500,000 worldwide is also half of the corresponding XBox 360 number. Given that the XBox 360 is twice as old as the Wii, it looks like the blue ocean really does buy games like everybody else.

Like I said, the 360 versions tend to do better because they get a lot more exposure than the Wii version. Also, like you said, the 360 has a bigger installed userbase while the Wii is hard to find right now.

So people must give the Wii versions of game a little more credit, especially when have to face some hurdles.

[Kairon]

Actually, the Wii has the larger userbase compared to the XBox 360. There's no question that the tie-in ratio is lower for the Wii compared to the 360 either.

But this is understandable. The XBox 360 is two years old compared to the Wii's one, so it shouldn't be astonishing that it has roughly double the number of games that have hit certain sales milestones considering it's had twice the amount of time to achieve that. Also, while the XBox 360's tie-in ratio is higher than the Wii's, Nintendo claims that the Wii is in-line with the historical PS2 tie-in ratio at this stage of its life cycle. The XBox 360 is actually the aberrant one here in that not enough new and mainstream consumers are buying the system to bring the tie-ratio down.

[Infernal Monkey]

"Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games: 2.28 million worldwide, 770,000 + in the US"

Nice! Wonder how the DS version will do.