The roles really have changed this generation.

Wii = PS4 (market leader, launched a year after competitor)

PS3 = XB1 (last place, launched a year after competitor)

360 = Wii U (second place, launched before competitors)

I remeber some PS3 fans would complain all the time that if you aligned the launches, PS3 sales would constantly be above the 360. That if both systems had launched simultaneously, the xbox 360 would have never taken off like it did with the one year head start. So my question to you guys is do you still believe the Wii U would remain in second, when the PS3 did eventually catch up.

Edit:

Launches aligned:

1. PS4 = 10,050,258
2. Xbox One = 5,036,002
3. Wii U = 3,419,043

No it wouldn't be. Align the launches and you see the X1 is ahead and considering that the Wii U is only in limited competition with the X1/PS4 I cannot see that a simlutaneous launch of all 3 would have significantly influenced the sales of any of the 3 systems.

I'll add these numbers into my original post, if you dont mind.

But it didn't and it's not.

If the Xbox One launched 3 years ago, didn't have Kinect 2, or restrictive DRM, was the same price and was also made of solid platinum and gave away free blow jobs, it would have sold better than the PS4. But guess what; it didn't, and it's not.

Currently the Wii U is in 2nd place, and the momentum is in its favour. That may change tomorrow (it certainly didn't yesterday). Moving the goalposts doesn't change that fact.

Consoles don't launch in a vacuum, sales are dictated not only by the console's own merits but also the environment in which it is released.

If the Wii U was released later with its launch aligned to the XB1 it would have had a much better software line-up, wouldn't have suffered the same droughts and may have sold much better....

Pretty much.

I get what you're trying to say OP; but then there's a whole array of other factors which would have to be taken into account as well. Such as whether or not people would choose a PS4 over a Wii U or vice-versa and thus alter the sales even further; so launch-aligned comparisons are good but not overly accurate. 

Still what is does highlight is just how poorly the Wii U was doing. It's hardly doing brilliantly right now but it's easy to forget the Wii U sold around 55k on the last charted week; compared to 23.5k on the same week last year. 

I'll say exactly what wii/xbox 360 fans said to those ps3 fans

"it doen't matter, sales are sales, it's third place deal with it"

Though, the reality is, if the launches were aligned, the market would be different and thus using current numbers makes zero sense.

When ... no one knows what games MS had been ready for Xbox one when it launched a year earlier. If Wii U launched a year later it had a better line-up, better OS and therefore better press. Perhaps it first year sales would be much higher.

But this is all fantasy. Reality is now: PS4 first, Wii U second and Xbox One third.

Indeed, we can bet that launches aligned, the X360 would have never reached 80M and PS3 would have sold even better but nobody reminds that because reality is what it is

It wouldn't have pushed the development windows for SM3DW, Pikmin 3, Lego City Undercover, W101 back. If we were talking a 2 or 3 year difference from 2012 maybe, but not a year. A November 2013 release with the above titles probably would have put WiiU higher than the actual 2012 release. Whether that's 100k or 500k I don't know.