The way I see it there is a little bit of a Nintendo fan in almost all gamers.  When Nintendo comes out with hardware that's appealing as a first or second console and makes amazing first party games they will have success.  The Switch is doing great because I think a PS4 first gamer sees the Switch as something complimentary due to the portability and have no problem picking up the hardware and thanks to great games like BOTW, Mario Odyssey and Smash games have been selling really well on the system.  The Wiiu seemed like a burden to people as a second system because it was just weird. Games are also selling well because I think Switch owners feel like the freedom to play portability or in docked mode allows them to play their games in more situations and thus increases the value of the game to them.  Its almost like getting two copies of the game. One for a console and one for a handheld. 

You don't sell 14 million consoles of a fisher price tablet without having some very dedicated fans. 

Though the Wii U actually got me into Nintendo after I had moved away from them with the Xbox. 

Did Wii U sell as much as it did because Nintendo fans buy anything or because games like Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros 4, Super Mario Maker & Splatoon were high quality and desirable games?

If it sold because of very dedicated fans than games like Kirby: Rainbow Curse, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Party, Paper Mario: Color Splash & Star Fox Zero should have been multimillion selling hits like the other games I listed were.

That doesn't make any sense. Nintendo always sells consoles off two things: hardware and games. And where the Wii U was lacking in hardware, it had some very good software. However, that software wasn't enough to get a lot of casuals invested in the Wii U. So who was buying the hardware to play the software? Mostly fans. They put more value on the software than other people because they are a fan of that software to a greater degree than the casual audience. I feel like that should be pretty obvious. Not sure why you thought I was implying that Nintendo fans bought anything. All I was implying is that it takes a very dedicated audience to get a console as clumsy as the Wii U to 13.5 million sales, which I don't think should be looked at as some great offense. 

If you saw what I wrote in the thread earlier, the argument that Nintendo fans buy anything is nonsensical anyways because even if that were true, that's mostly due to the hard work Nintendo has put in to establish a huge following. And as you can see, that's a big reason why games like Amiibo Festival (party was the Mario Party 10 mode), Color Splash and Star Fox Zero sold less. Not only did they come out during the Wii U's most dead years, but fans weren't feeling the passion that they felt from other Nintendo games. 

Edit: I think it's more complicated than fans do or don't buy anything. Mostly because the argument that fans buy anything is figurative anyways, not literal. The basis is that fans tend to buy stuff that is looked at as a worse value more than casuals do, which tends to be true for all console fanbases. However, the argument mostly falls flat because that doesn't matter. It's true for all audiences, and Nintendo earns their keep anyways considering most of their software is beloved. Not to mention, there are certainly times where the value perspective swings more towards casuals than the hardcore following.

Nintendo’s brand is a big part of the sales, this is true with any established product - imitators generally have a more difficult time: and Nintendo established or even began several genres/sub genres.

Your previous post said, "You don't sell 14 million consoles of a fisher price tablet without having some very dedicated fans."

To me that implied that it was people who would buy any Nintendo product simply because it's a Nintendo product and my argument was that it wasn't just people being blindly loyal to Nintendo, it was people who wanted to play their various high-quality games.

You have cleared up what you meant and overall I agree with you.

Yeah no problem then Sorry for the confusion, I didn't think my statement could be read as supporting one argument or the other.

The Wii U had a lot of great software. I understand the reasons why it sold so little, but even now I'm surprised it didn't sell a few million more. 

It's true

but I tend to buy Nintendo games over 3rd party games :p

If you look at the highest selling games on almost any platform, a lion's share typically belong to a select few super-popular developer/IPs. On PS4 for example, 8 of the top 10 sellers belong to COD, FIFA, and Rockstar.

Perhaps Nintendo games sell very well because they make excellent games...for the most part?

I mean, you did just note the few duds that were poor and as a result under performed.