It’s everybody’s favourite time again… sales figures time! That’s right, Nintendo of America has finally released its series of facts and figures that give an overview of the holiday performance of Nintendo products in the United States. There are some good, solid numbers in there, particular for the Wii U in December, after the launch rush.
As of December 29th, total console sales in the U.S. for the Wii U stood at 890,000 units—and New Super Mario Bros. U sold 580,000 copies, which is an “attach rate of just over 65%.” I don’t think anyone’s complaining about those sales figures… though it’s a far cry from the Wii’s launch, which saw 600,000 systems sell in just the 8 days after launch.
Nintendo of America’s Executive VP of Sales & Marketing, Scott Moffit, is doing what he can to focus on the areas in which the Wii U has out-performed the Wii, specifically when looking at its inherently higher retail cost on store shelves. Looking at it from that perspective, Wii U hardware sales have rung up over $300 million since launch, compared to the equivalent Wii which generated a little over $270 million.
Here’s what Moffit had to say:
“While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation. The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U, shows that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013. We look forward to offering great new experiences and bringing smiles to millions of new faces throughout the year.”
And moving away from the Wii U for a moment, the 3DS also came through with some decent figures, despite disappointing Black Friday sales (where the DS actually outsold it!). The handheld device saw 1.25 million sales in the month of December, bringing that U.S. “lifetime 3DS units sold” number up past a hearty 7.7 million units. And not to be outdone, New Super Mario Bros. 2 became the 4th 3DS game to ring in a million sales, bringing that lifetime total to 1.45 million copies (with Just Dance 3 on the Wii becoming the 10th title to move over 5 million units).
We also saw sales of other Nintendo products, likely due to the cost reduction for things like the DS and the Wii. The Wii sold almost 475,000 units and the DS sold almost 470,000 units. We can now say the Wii has over 40 million sales in its lifetime in the U.S., and the DS? 53 million.
The 3DS seems to have come out on top this holiday season, but when all’s said and done, this is the 11th year in a row that Nintendo moved over 8 million units of hardware in the United States. While the numbers may have been played with a little due to the Wii U’s higher price point, what the report really seems to say is that Nintendo is doing rather well for itself in the U.S., despite the loud voices of naysayers these past few months.
