So I was having a debate with someone, and I feel sure that there was a period (maybe around 2008 - 2009?) where the Wii was actually more expensive than the lower Xbox 360 SKUs but still sold more units. Am I recalling correctly? He was trying to say that the main reason why the Wii has outsold Xbox 360 in past is because it was cheaper - so I thought this would be a good counter example.

Where's the easiest place for me to see historical sales and price data for all three consoles? I can probably find it on this site, but I haven't been here in a while, so help would be appreciated. Thanks!

"Xbox 360 Arcade

The Xbox 360 Arcade[64] replaced the "Xbox 360 Core" as the entry level Xbox 360 on October 23, 2007, while retaining the Core's price of US$279.99.[65] It was publicly revealed by Microsoft's president of Entertainment Devices division Robbie Bach to the Financial Times on October 18, 2007,[66] and officially announced on October 22, 2007,[26] although it was available in stores far earlier.[64] It included a wireless controller, composite AV cable, HDMI 1.2 output, a 256 MB memory unit and 5 Xbox Live Arcade titles:[67] Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship Edition, and Uno on a single disk, which also included a "Welcome Video" and several game trailers/demos.[68] Like its predecessor the "Core", it did not include a hard disk drive, which is required for Xbox software backwards compatibility. In Autumn (Fall) 2008, with the introduction of the Jasper motherboard revision, the memory unit was removed from the package and replaced with an 256 MB internal memory chip.[69] This was later upgraded to a 512 MB chip in Summer 2009.[70] Holiday 2008 consoles were bundled with Sega Superstars Tennis.[58] With the price cuts on September 4, 2008, the Arcade fell from US$279 to US$199 in the US.[59] In the UK, with the 2009 Elite price drop and discontinuation of the "Premium" Pro SKU, the Arcade price rose from GB£129.99 to GB£159.99.[71] With the unveiling of the Xbox 360 S redesign, the Arcade dropped in price to US$149.99 for remaining units until stocks are exhausted. The Arcade was replaced at the US$200 price tier by the 4 GB Xbox 360 S."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

"On September 23, 2009, Nintendo announced its first price drops for the console. In Japan, the price dropped from ¥25,000 to ¥20,000, effective October 1, 2009.[89] In the United States, the price was reduced by $50 resulting in a new MSRP of $199.99, effective September 27, 2009.[90] In Europe (excepting non-eurozone nations), the price of a Wii console dropped to €199 from €249."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii

I can safely assume the Wii outsold the 360 during this time period (Sept 2008 - Sept 2009).  You can look the sales up if you want but I am not sure if you are going to be able to find the amount of Arcade models sold within this time period.  It will probably just have all models included in the data.  So it is kind of a pointless argument.

Even if it has more SKUs in the data, it still shows that price can't have been the only factor for greater sales, so that'ls helpful thanks.

Anyone else know where I can look? This site doesn't seem to have the historical sales figures broken down by year, unless I'm missing something...?

didnt one of the 360 models get down to $199 when the wii was still $250?

yes they sure did because i bought a xbox 360 arcade the first year available for 199.99 in the usa .

the wii was still 249.99 cause i had bought one of those the previous year xmas time(2008 ish) actually . so ya and the arcade model came in 09 the wii price drop did not occur til 2010s mariokart wii bundle was sold alongside the current model in 2010 october which i bought the arcade model 2 times. the first time it was just with the arcade games . the 2nd one in 2010 was with the guitarhero walmart deal .

so yes the wii was at one time more expensive then the xbox arcade ,

and sold more better in fact that was the year wii broke records

Yes, in 2008 and 2009 before Wii reduced its price to where it actually equaled the lower 360 price. Even at the same price it continued to outsell 360 for quite some time until Wii simply continued its YOY declines and 360 remained even or gained with the launch of Kinect in 2010.

Damn I suppose the people just like their good 'ol Nintendo better.

lol I didn't even know that till now

well what do you expect Nintendo's been here longer and is the trusted brand theyll never let them die .

cause without them lets face serious facts here . we'd have less competition and less change as well because the other two do not find any reason until nintendo tests the water to change look at wii for instance.

if it was not for it's success sony and microsoft would never have made kenict or move to prolong the 360 and ps3 ,

and if rumors are true about the xbox720 using a tablet . you can also thank nintendo for that also in 97 n64 had the first analog stick and a rumble add -on - that provoked sony to create what was known as the dual shock

it also helps in nintendos favor that they have built all of these ground breaking titles such as zelda mario metroid pokemon as well as others like donkey kong and excite and wii sports

every little thing helps , and nintendo just seamed poised to be back on top


and it was only a matter of time .to be honest.

Added to what Seth said, here are the global sales for all consoles in 2008. you can even break it further down by region. 

http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2008/Global/ 

The Wii beat all Xbox SKUs in all regions in both 2008, 2009 and 2010. To even greater extent it outsold the Arcade SKU.