This is a pretty much constant theme in Nintendo Discussion but I haven't seen a breakdown of actual sales anywhere in said threads.
These are the million selling Wii games according to VG Chartz (some data is missing but it's the best we've got to go on). I've designated them hardcore or casual. Feel free to disagree as it's a crappy and arbitrary distinction anyway but one the industry is obsessed by and probably will be for a while yet. If I can imagine my parents or a non-gaming friend wanting to play it I've labelled it casual. So basically casual here means accessible. Core gamers may also like it. IMO MK, Sonic, Lego Star Wars and GH3 don't fit into either because they have very easy and very core aspects so I've labelled them "both".
| Pos | Game | Console | Publisher | Hits | Score | Sales | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Wii Sports |  | Nintendo | 48,616 | 7.86 | 23.66m |
| 2 |  | Wii Play | | Nintendo | 26,312 | 6.83 | 12.49m |
| 3 |  | Super Mario Galaxy | | Nintendo | 135,232 | 8.12 | 6.56m |
| 4 |  | Super Smash Bros Brawl | | Nintendo | 89,930 | 8.03 | 5.38m |
| 5 |  | Mario Party 8 | | Nintendo | 24,502 | 7.46 | 5.20m |
| 6 |  | Mario Kart Wii | | Nintendo | 44,141 | 7.78 | 5.12m |
| 7 |  | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | | Nintendo | 36,734 | 8.26 | 4.81m |
| 8 |  | Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games | | Sega | 8,173 | 7.76 | 4.44m |
| 9 |  | Wii Fit | | Nintendo | 46,132 | 7.86 | 4.37m |
| 10 |  | Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock | | RedOctane | 18,992 | 7.69 | 2.70m |
| 11 |  | Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree | | Nintendo | 8,926 | 7.41 | 2.37m |
| 12 |  | Wario Ware: Smooth Moves | | Nintendo | 6,596 | 7.38 | 2.34m |
| 13 |  | Super Paper Mario | | Nintendo | 14,731 | 7.79 | 2.34m |
| 14 |  | Link's Crossbow Training | | Nintendo | 14,698 | 7.34 | 1.98m |
| 15 |  | Carnival Games | | Global Star | 10,512 | 7.24 | 1.86m |
| 16 |  | Mario Strikers Charged | | Nintendo | 15,772 | 7.80 | 1.65m |
| 17 |  | Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition | | Capcom | 47,933 | 8.13 | 1.60m |
| 18 |  | Metroid Prime 3: Corruption | | Nintendo | 52,214 | 8.09 | 1.37m |
| 19 |  | Sonic and the Secret Rings | | Sega | 11,720 | 7.75 | 1.37m |
| 20 |  | Rayman Raving Rabbids | | Ubisoft | 6,874 | 7.66 | 1.34m |
| 21 |  | Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga | | LucasArts | 10,411 | 7.75 | 1.24m |
| 22 |  | Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles | | Capcom | 33,040 | 7.77 | 1.22m |
| 23 |  | Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 | | Ubisoft | 11,983 | 7.75 | 1.20m |
| 24 |  | MySims | | Electronic Arts | 6,918 | 7.25 | 1.07m |
| 25 |  | Red Steel | | Ubisoft | 5,658 | 7.04 | 1.05m |
Wii Sports - casual
Wii Play - casual
Super Mario Galaxy - hardcore
Super Smash Bros Brawl - hardcore
Mario Party 8 - casual
Mario Kart Wii - both
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - hardcore
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - casual
Wii Fit - casual
Guitar Hero 3 - both
Big Brain Academy - casual
WarioWare - casual
Super Paper Mario - hardcore
Link's Crossbow Training - casual
Carnival Games - casual
Mario Strikers Charged - casual
Resident Evil 4 - hardcore
Metroid Prime 3 - hardcore
Sonic and the Secret Rings - both
Rayman Raving Rabbids - casual
Lego Star Wars - both
Resident Evil UC - hardcore
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 - casual
My Sims - casual
Red Steel - hardcore
I'm sure people will disagree with some but if we go with those that gives us 13/25 casual, 4/25 both and 8/25 hardcore.
Total sales:
Casual - 63.97m - average of 4.92m per game. If we exclude Wii Sports (but remember it's what persuaded to vast majority of casuals to get a Wii in the first place) then we get 40.31m - average of 3.36m per game.
Both - 10.43m - average of 2.61m per game.
Hardcore - 24.33m - average of 3.04m per game.
I'm not pretending this is scientific or fully representative. There are lots of casual games languishing at the bottom with very poor sales and everyone is going to disagree with at least one of the categorisations I've made. Casual games are also likely to make a profit off lower sales than a hardcore game could. But it does show where this "the Wii only sells to casuals" comes from. Even though the average sales per game is roughly the same for hardcore or casual there are more casual games shifting big units, leading to much larger total sales of casual games. If you're a publisher like Ubisoft wanting to make fast money it's easy to see why you'd get the idea that casual is the way to go. Casual doesn't have to mean bad though. There are several games I've labelled casual that I'd be happy to play and I'm sure most people on this board would too.
