The Wii Era, in my opinion, was the first time that Sales Figures became a front-and-center topic in the industry. I think it was a mix of a revolution in gaming control schemes(motion), an overwhelming hardware leader(Wii), and online gaming communities having established themselves(compared to the 2000 console era). So, for starters, do you agree with that premise?

But now, it seems that the topic has fizzled out. In part because the revolution of the mainstream motion controls was no longer "new". Secondly, motion controls actually were phased out surprisingly, partly because Nintendo literally took away the wii-motes! Agree/Disagree?

So now the Switch has dominated in a big way, and yet the kind of excitement we saw during the Wii era doesn't seem to match. I'm not saying it's not high, I just don't see the match. Is that just me or is it simply the same level of hype but expressed differently? For example, the college experience back then was a group of people getting together to play Wii Bowling, an experience that I haven't seen replicated on the Switch.

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Not necessarily a Nintendo-specific topic, but is interesting to me that "Sales" are no longer the hot topic they used to be. I think the way people interact with each other in society is responsible, as entertainment phenomenon's have an important social element to them, and I definitely see societal glue becoming "thinner" Last note is that I'm not currently an engaged gamer as I don't own any current gen systems, but I still follow the industry very closely and am passionate about Nintendo in general.

That's because Switch doesn't cater as much to casuals as the Wii did.
Back then you couldn't really avoid it, as anyone and their grandma knew what it was, while PS3 and 360 were mostly only known to the gaming community and maybe some parents. Not really a topic you could start on family reunions.

About the sales, at least least if you're talking about this forum, then the reason is obvious.
For a few years the site has become really slow in terms of new sales updates, sometimes being behind 2 or 3 months. Nobody cares about such old numbers. Other reason is the amount of digital sales, which is fluctuating from game to game but roughly between 20 and 40 percent nowadays.
It's hard to make comparisons with games of previous gens due to that reason.

Numbers aren't hot because they're not updated to the same degree. They were like clock work for years. Outside a week or two a year. They were expected and the people came because of the fact.

Casuals don't care about numbers. Let alone consider looking online and joining a forum to discuss the numbers.

Not to take away anything from the updates to the site and recent numbers situation.... The site is getting better and better every day.

To me they not as hot for a couple reasons:

1. Updates are so slow for the last couple years or so.

2. With console mid gen upgrades and limited editions, there is a fair few people buying more than one of the same console (i.e 3DS to new 3DS and XL, PS4 to Pro etc...). For me this kind of spoils the numbers as it makes it harder to gauge actual unique customer sales. 3DS looks impressive, but if I got about 15 of them how many other hardcore games have the same? Eventually I'll upgrade to a PS4 Pro as my friends have and to me i don't really feel like my second purchase is expanding the userbase.

If you could even call the Switch an "anomaly" since your comparison from this generation to 6th generation forgets to factor in the GBA ... 

Yeah I dont know. i miss all the Xbox Fans

wiiu, was dead on arrival, ps4 dominated from the beginning, so there is really nothing to discuss, it's back to ps2 era, just with switch  coming out 4 years later to make thing s interesting again.  

Sales info first became a big deal during the SNES and Genesis war. Each generation since, internet warriors have waged mortal warfare based on how much their piece of plastic sold etc. As long as that info is out there, the war will wage on for all eternity. It will not end until consoles end.

I wouldn't even argue "hybrid" since home and portable systems are mutually exclusive in terms of form factor and Nintendo intentionally designed it to be such, a portable system plus the Switch doesn't have any functionality that would distinguish it as a hybrid compared to other recognized portable systems like the Vita ... 

Up we go within spec I say ...  

And maybe it is irrelevant but there's still a precedent for it ...