Declining Wii sales in Japan?

[Sullla]

This whole notion that Wii sales in Japan are declining is a gigantic pile of baloney. July sales were the highest of any month this year! Kotaku's article just demonstrates how you can give statistics that are 100% accurate, yet convey a completely misleading picture.

For fun, I've continued TalonMan's listing of Japanese Wii sales above. All numbers from the vgchartz weekly listings, rounded to the nearest thousand.

July
7/29 74k
7/22 83k
7/15 110k (Dragon Quest Swords)
7/08 75k
7/01 76k
Average (5 weeks): 83.6k

June
6/24 67k
6/17 69k
6/10 66k
6/03 71k
Average (4 weeks): 68.3k

May
5/27 61k
5/20 56k
5/13 55k
5/06 91k (Golden Week)
Average (4 weeks): 65.8k

April
4/29 91k (Golden Week)
4/22 73k
4/15 71k
4/08 50k
4/01 47k
Average (5 weeks): 66.4k

March
3/25 83k
3/18 67k
3/11 48k
3/04 61k
Average (4 weeks): 64.8k

Conclusion: Wii sales in Japan have largely been stable this year, pushing around 65k per week on average. Some weeks the supply is higher, some weeks it's lower, but the average has been pretty consistent. The month of July is well above normal sales, so any conclusion that the "fad" is dying out would be completely and utterly misplaced.

If you only look at one or two weeks of the chart, you miss what's really going on. Or, let me put it this way: Sony fans can take heart that the Wii only sold 47k and 50k units the first two weeks of April! That must mean that PS3 Domination is about to begin - the fad is OVER! :p