http://www.vgchartz.com/article/251106/top-10-in-sales-wii-2013-update/
This list is why Nintendo games will not help the WiiU be a hit.
5th best selling game is a 2D Mario game one that has already had a successor on the WiiU and sales are still rubbish.
The 5 Wii/sport/play/fit games sold because they showed off the novelty motion controller best to the casual audience something that any future games in those series won't repeat as there is no longer anything novel about touchscreens.
Even if the WiiU smash bros, 3D Mario and Zelda games match the best selling members of there respective franchises and those are all unique buyers that's at most 30 million sales. And we know that most who buy from one of those buys from all 3 so 15 million additional lifetime WiiU sales is a good bet once the next new installments are released.
Mario Kart Wii is an outlier a record selling title from a core Nintendo franchise but the WiiU Mario Kart will NOT repeat this sales feat. The reason? Mario Kart as a racing game is the one core Nintendo franchise that the casual Wii sport/fit buyer can understand and as that audience has moved to mobile and browser games the WiiU Mario Kart is probably at most good for 10 million sales lifetime.
The WiiU needs a novelty app to get it in the door and the old franchises are not it.
I originally thought the WiiU Pokemon game with the little figures like Activision's Skylanders would be it and then it was released and according to reviews it's at best mediocre. So with that disappointment I no longer believe the WiiU can even match Gamecube lifetime sales.
