Copied from Gamasutra....

Internal survey data from Nintendo shows 46 percent of Americans aged 6 to 74 using the Wii or Nintendo DS at least once in the past year, with 62 percent of Americans in general using video game consoles.

Despite declining sales in the last year, the number of U.S. Wii users has increased by roughly 25 percent to 100 million in the past year, according to data based on phone and mail surveys conducted by Nintendo and revealed during an extensive, graph-filled investor presentation by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.  

Iwata also laid out comparisons showing cumulative U.S. sales for the Wii 23 percent higher than those for the best-selling PS2 system at this same point in its lifecycle. U.S. Wii sales for the first three quarters of the fifth year of availability were also 22 percent higher that similar sales for the PS2.  

"I hope each and all these charts will convince you that Wii, as a machine set to welcome its fifth holiday sales season, can never be considered to have lost momentum," Iwata said.  

For the DS, Iwata presented data showing U.S. hardware sales down slightly from this point last year, but also showing the system's share of the portable console software market rising to nearly 85 percent so far in 2010, up from 69 percent in 2008.  

The Nintendo DS and portables in general have fared less well in Europe, Nintendo's data shows, with steep drop-offs in hardware and software sales for both the Nintendo DS and PSP in the past two years. Iwata said piracy may be at least partially to blame for this state of affairs.  

"Some say that such devices as MagiCom, which promote illegal copies of software, are mainly responsible for these changes happening in the European handheld software sales, Iwata said. "The fact that, with the proliferation of such devices, Europe has become the market where illegal copies have spread most widely among all the advanced nations in the world must have affected the change in the size of the entire European market."  

Japan has been the brightest spot for sales of the Wii, Nintendo's data shows, with overall sales rising to represent over 50 percent of the home console market so far in 2010, just ahead of the PS3's 42 percent share of the market.  

Iwata also used the presentation to present new data showing 115 games selling at least one million copies globally on the DS, and 84 such games on the Wii. Iwata was quick to point out the the majority of these games were third-party releases, although Nintendo-published titles make up 40 percent of the DS' million selling titles and nearly 30 percent of the Wii's.  

The company also stressed how many of its titles, including Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario 64 DS and Brain Age have seen most of their sales outside the traditional first twelve months of availability.  

Selected highlights from the graphs, which are available in full on Nintendo's website, are as follows:

"Internal survey data from Nintendo shows 46 percent of Americans aged 6 to 74 using the Wii or Nintendo DS at least once in the past year, with 62 percent of Americans in general using video game consoles."

That's the difference right there. Everyone plays the Wii now and then but very few intensively (or like the PS360).

You may be right, but what data can you cite to to prove your assertion?

Very few at all play any videogame system intensively.  If you want to know more about that data though look at the monthly Neilsen studies, Wii's usually 2nd in the rankings (behind 360, ahead of PS3) and in fact was for August (last report).

The EU handheld software totals are interesting, and really clue us in on why 3DS (and PSP2) are coming so quick.  How do those totals compare to VGC totals btw?

"can never be considered to have lost momentum"

I'm sorry, Iwata, that is an insane statement and a false one at that. Is he denying that the Wii, that previously outsold the competition combined now has been beaten by both individually for many, many consecutive weeks? The two companies he doesn't even consider competitors because they're so far behind and inferior has outsold his product by a great deal lately and one of them is only trailing one million behind in total sales for the year so far but was utterly dominated last year.This is the very definition of losing momentum in my book.  I love Iwata, I do, but sometimes I wonder if he has snorted something with good old Crazy Ken!

According to the last graph, ModernWarfare 2 is a lot bigger than Halo 3 in the US and both of them sold less than 7 million.

According to VGChartz, Halo 3 sold more ~8.07 million in NA and Modern Warfare 2 sold ~8.01.

Context matters.  In this case, the preceding paragraph shows what he means.

"Iwata also laid out comparisons showing cumulative U.S. sales for the Wii 23 percent higher than those for the best-selling PS2 system at this same point in its lifecycle. U.S. Wii sales for the first three quarters of the fifth year of availability were also 22 percent higher that similar sales for the PS2.  

"I hope each and all these charts will convince you that Wii, as a machine set to welcome its fifth holiday sales season, can never be considered to have lost momentum," Iwata said.  "

The comment is thus an accurate, if incomplete, one.

The graph doesn't include sales bundled with hardware.  That's also why WSR is so low comparably, and Wii Sports is missing entirely.

I saw the context, it is still false, it has lost tremendous amounts of momentum compared to last years and especially compared to the competition. His insistence on comparing the graphs with the longlived PS2 puzzles me, the Wii competes with the PS360 and the assured hardware record the Wii would set (selling more lifetime than the PS2) just a year or less back in time has now become moot headshakes and disbelief, it will never reach that goal at, showing that;

A: All projections from both Nintendo and Vgchartz analysts were wrong, how many times has TheSource assured everyone that the Wii is well on its way to easily beating the PS2's lifetime sales?

B: Going by point A, it has to have lost a whole lot of momentum for all past projections (including Nintendo's internal fiscal ones, lowered two times in under a year) to have suddenly been rendered comepetely worthless.

Edit; Iwata also adresses the US only market here, yet another factor making his statements confusing at best. Its not doing so hot in Japan and is being soundly beaten in EMEAA.