Starting from Jan 1st 2008 up to November 9th 2008, roughly 10.7 million games were sold for the Wii among 100 titles that charted.

Of those 10.7 million games, 8.7 million were first party games distributed among 28 games (Avrg 310k units/game), of which 13 were new games and 15 older games. This means 81.3% of all games sold in Japan were first party. New games accounted for 4.7 million units (Avrg 316k units/game), while older games accounted for another 4 million units (Avrg 266k units/game).
What's more interesting, out of the 10.7 million, 8 million were attributed to MKWii + Wii Fit + SSBB + Wii Sports + Wii Play + SMG + Mario Party 8 + Link's Bowgun Training + Wii Music + Super Mario Stadium, which equals 75% of all Wii games sold.
If we remove MKWii and SSBB out of the new releases, the average units/game drops dramatically for new releases, from 316k to 100k.


Third party companies sold a combined total of 2 million games, 19.7% of all games.
This 2 million games were distributed among 72 games (Avrg 27k units/game), of which 38 were new games and 34 were older games. New games accounted for 1.4 million games (Avrg 37k units/game)  while older ones for the remaining 600k games (Avrg 17.5k units/game).
The best selling 3rd party game sold 248k units, which is less than the average 1st party game. A thing to note is that most of the 3rd party games for the Wii this year bombed badly in Japan and PS3 3rd party games handidly outsold the Wii ones.


Wii is on a tough decline in Japan, not even 1st party games are selling that good anymore. When 10 out of 100 games make up the 75% of the total sales, and all of them are 1st party there's something that's not right. In Japan, the "only first party games sell on the Wii" generalization is valid, and it gets worse when you know that the PS3 has sold more 3rd party software this year with a userbase of almost one third of the Wii. Expect this ratio to grow even more with Animal Crossing City Folk release. Also, when 2 out of 13 new games make up more than 75% of all the sales of the new 1st party games, it also tells us that Japanese gamers aren't even buying 1st party games anymore.

Wii may be losing steam way too fast in their homeland, and by next year things can only get worse, given the fact that outside Wii Sports: Resort, there's no other big game getting released there, being 1st or 3rd party.

Why do write all this? Because you can simply say 'I'm disatisfied with Wii. I wish it sold 2 million per week got all third party from X360, the PS3 power, and Ninty released one zelda/mario/metroid per year.'

@haxxiy: What? I was just making an analysis on why Wii has been going down in sales and popularity in Japan, whereas in the rest of the World, Wii has seen an increase. Japan is maybe the most important market for them, where they release all of their games, and still people seem to be losing interest.

I hate these threads.

Why don`t you sell your Wii and buy games that are aimed at kids your age (Gears of War, GTA 4, Halo).

Can you tell which of these 3rd party games sold less than they deserved or which proven franchise sold less on the Wii than other consoles (don`t say stupid things like Soul Calibur Legends).

I think your analysis is a reflection on console gaming in Japan, not the Wii in of it self. I mean WHAT system do you see filling the console void if you feel that the Wii would falter in '09?

@ItsaMii: I like how Wii fans get pissed about this when I say it, but it's the truth. I'm not a kid, I don't like crappy shooters like you kiddo imply. This has got nothing to do with gaming tastes, what's really surprising IMO is seeing that the Wii is so buried in terms of SW sales, not even the sequel to We Ski sold remotely decent, when the first game sold well. Games like Tenchu 4, which prequels have sold relatively good before, bombed badly. Even Wii Music isn't doing that hot.

I can only figure out that the Wii userbase there is made up in the majority of casual gamers. Casual not meaning gamers who like party games and stuff, but casual meaning people who barely play games, and only bought the Wii just because.

I said that mostly because what you keep posting again and again.

And why Japan exactly is the most important market to them if they earn there far less with each Wii sold than in America/Europe and the atach rate in Japan have always been the smallest?

Trestres, I have to admit you are cherry picking JUST abit regarding the upcoming releases for year end, as well as next your...

2008 year end releases link---> http://wii.ign.com/index/release.html?constraint.eq.game.locale=ja

@senortaco: Which of those games do you see being a big hit like Wii Sports Resort or Animal Crossing?

I honestly doubt any of those games will sell more than what the average 1st party game sells.