Portable Planet

February looked a lot like January, with Wii taking the top spot in next-gen consoles over rivals PS3 and Xbox 360.  Nintendo Wii sold 335,000 units, whilst Xbox 360’s were 228K and PS3 underperformed with 127K consoles sold.  Naturally, Nintendo was overjoyed, and issued a press release to announce the news:

According to independent sales data released by the NPD Group, the Wii from Nintendo was America’s best-selling video game console in the U.S. again in February, with consumers snapping up virtually every system available in America totaling more than 335,000 units. 

Only one game system sold more in February, the portable Nintendo DS, with sell-through of 485,000 units. Together, Nintendo systems represented 54 percent of all hardware sales in February, more than those of all other manufacturers combined. 

“We’re gratified that the explosive appeal of Wii, in terms of both new players and new ways to play, has created unprecedented demand, substantially beyond supply,” says Reggie Fils-Aime, president, Nintendo of America. “But we also understand that there are hundreds of thousands of consumers still waiting to get their hands on the system so we continue to both ship more units to retail every week and work non-stop to build capacity.”

Reports from households across the country indicate that Wii has become the centerpiece for weekend parties a new method for improving athletic technique and losing weight, and a landmark product for generating cross-generational fun.

The strength of Wii and Nintendo DS was also apparent in monthly software sales where three of the top four best-selling games for the month (Wii Play  and The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess for Wii, and Diddy Kong  Racing DS for Nintendo DS) play exclusively on Nintendo systems.  In addition, so far this year 10 of the top 20 best-selling games are exclusive for Nintendo hardware.