Some Wii U vs Wii launch comparisons (Sales)

[Aielyn]

OK, so there's not quite enough information yet to do a proper comparison for European week 1 data (we only have UK and German game sales, and VGChartz doesn't have EU country breakdown data from 2006), but I thought I'd look at what I could now from what's already there.

Now, the first observation is that the Wii U in Europe had a much smaller first week than the Wii had. I'm not sure why, but there's a few bits of information that may help.

Wii U: 73,757 units (2 days)
Wii: 321,565 units (2 days)
360: 231,802 units (9 days? Released on Dec 2, but no sales for week ending Dec 3, only for Dec 10)

I included 360 to try to understand what happens with European launch sales, typically. But without first-week information, the comparison is imperfect. If we suppose that the first two days for 360 encompass, say, 30-40% of sales from the first 9 days, then it accounts for 69,541-92,721 units, suggesting that the Wii U may be selling comparably to the 360 in Europe for the first two days.

It's still disappointing, but it does seem to be a little less depressing once you've seen that. The Wii managed a lot more, but perhaps that's just a matter of shipping more. Guess we'll have to wait to see the rest of 2012's sales to get a better idea.

Beyond that, the lack of full European software data means we can't do a proper comparison, but there's one interesting comparison we can make right now:

Top-selling third-party title?

ZombiU (UK): 16,395 copies sold
ZombiU (DE): 8,485 copies sold
ZombiU (UK+DE): 24,880 copies sold
Call of Duty 3 (EU): 17,659 copies sold

So even with only UK and Germany data, ZombiU is easily outselling third-party launch Wii titles in Europe. Considering the lower system sales, that's quite an achievement. I would also do a quick comparison with 360 launch titles, but VGChartz doesn't seem to have 360 sales data for Europe in 2005. This will be an interesting comparison for Europe-wide sales data.

I'd also compare Need for Speed: Carbon with Sonic and Sega Racing, but the latter doesn't have any solid numbers right now.