It's about the experience, and the momentum.

I bought a WiiU a few years ago. And as soon as I turned it on, I could understand why it wasn't that popular.

That controller first of all,was a pain in the neck. Made things complicated. And as soon as you powered the WiiU on for the first time, you had to install it and go on a long dragging process just to start playing it. All this had killed the momentum right at the beginning. And once the momentum stops, it's very difficult to get it rolling again. The hardware itself had a lot of problems. It wasn't just a matter of third parties, or games. The hardware proposition was inherently flawed..

That wasn't my point .i was focusing on bad marketing.

A console needs a balance of third party and exclusives to be a success. Xbox One may not have too many heavy hitter exclusives, but still games like Halo 5, MCC, Gears 4, Forza Horizon, and others are still system sellers. With the combination of heavy 3rd party support, they still have a relatively successful console. WiiU had some great exclusives, but lacked heavily on 3rd party. Switch on the other hand has a good balance.

It just didn't click. There are stupid reasons why people like something or not. If it clicks, it clicks and if it doesn't, it doesn't. People will come up with reasons why it worked or didn't afterwards. There is something subconscious about why people love or hate something. The first year is very important and the Wii U just didn't have a good one. It's fate was sealed after that. Just my opinion

Exclusives do matter, even more so for Nintendo. One of the biggest problems with the Wii U was that Nintendo's release schedule for those vital exclusive games was abysmal. Especially in the crucial first 12 months. 

First 12 months of Wii U exclusives...

November NSMBU (Underwhelming paint by numbers sequelitis.)
December   NOTHING
January        NOTHING
February      NOTHING
March          NOTHING
April             NOTHING
May              NOTHING
June             NOTHING
July               NOTHING
August          Pikmin 3
September  NOTHING
October       NOTHING

But what about Windwaker HD? Sorry but remakes/remasters are available on an older system and thus not exactly exclusive. They also don't tend to move units unless they have Kart in the name. 

Simple. The exclusives weren't good enough. NSMBU was wanted by no-one, same for SM3DW and the Zelda remakes. I bought one for Pikmin 3 and sold it soon after finishing it. There was nothing else there that I couldn't play on the 3DS. It felt like they were competing with themselves

SM3DW, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Mario Maker, Smash Bros 4, Zelda BotW...are all great and strong potential system seller games, but they all come out on Wii U when console was already dead and considered for fail, Wii U need some of those games on launch and in its first year, similar to Switch.

Pretty much this.

I'd say if either 3d world, mk8, smash 4, or Splatoon  (splatoon that early could have LITERALLY made the ps4 crash and burn inJapann) came out by holiday 2013 it would have done SOOO much better. 

I also neglected to mention Wonderful 101. Both games failed to either break a million sales or receive high praise from the general consensus of critics. ZombiU sits at 77 on metacritic, which isn't bad, but also not critical acclaim. Wonderful 101 has a similar score of 78. 

I mean, if a game sells really well despite average critic scores, I can see why it should be worth mentioning. Or if a game sells poorly, but is praised by critics, the same thing goes. But neither? 

PS3 needed exclusives to be competitive, and in the end they kicked butt.