Nintendo's Wii got off to a stumbling start during the heavily hyped
Black Friday shopping window this year. Whereas the publisher sold
800,000 units during the week of Thanksgiving in 2008, that number fell to 550,000 in 2009, a slip that seemed to be in line with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's statement that Wii sales have "stalled." As it would turn out, though, Wii sales rebounded in a big way during December.
Citing internal sales figures, Nintendo announced today that Wii sales
for the final month of 2009 surpassed 3 million units in the US alone.
That figure compares more than favorably to the Wii's December 2008 performance,
during which it sold 2.15 million units domestically, according to the
NPD Group. Notably, Nintendo's console was also cheaper during the 2009
shopping window, as the Wii's price dropped $50 to $199 in September.
One game that helped propel those strong console sales is New Super
Mario Bros. Wii. Nintendo also said today that its latest platformer
featuring its iconic portly plumber has sold nearly 4 million units in
the US to date, according to its internal estimates. In December,
Nintendo said that New Super Mario Bros. Wii had shifted some 2 million units in the US in less than a month on the market.
Though Nintendo did not provide internal figures for the DS, the
platform holder did indicate that its handheld had a monumental year.
According to the publisher, the DS and camera-equipped DSi combined to
set an "all-time calendar-year US sales record for any console or
handheld system."
Official NPD numbers for December and all of 2008 are expected to be announced on Thursday, January 14.
0 comments:
Post a Comment