Wii Sports is best-selling game of all time, according to VGChartz

156 Comments by Griffin McElroy Jan 4th 2009 5:30PM
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Sports

We're automatically skeptical of any reports coming out of an organization who uses the letter "Z" to pluralize, but we find it difficult not to believe in a recent finding from VGChartz (sigh), who claim that Wii Sports has surpassed Super Mario Bros. as the best-selling video game of all time. After compiling last week's software sales, they've concluded that Wii Sports has barely crept past the 40.24 million mark that kept SMB on top of the pile for a bajillion years.

Of course, its worth noting that both games were bundled with their respective platforms (except in Japan and South Korea, whose Wiis were Sports-less), greatly boosting their sales. We wouldn't be surprised if the report proves to be accurate -- nor would we be shocked if Nintendo is currently looking for the highest, broadest rooftop from which they can proclaim their latest sales triumph.

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Bah!  The letter 'z' is INFINITELY superior to the letter 's'!

Also, it's worth it to read the comments--some of them are hilarious in their ignorance.  Some took it to believe that the Wii has already outsold the NES XD

Boycott the letter s!

Anyway, I s'pose any publicity is good for the site?? even if they did make a few underhanded comments

thiz iz awezome newz

The comments are funny.

Is it cheating if the game is bundled with the console?
No, you sir are an idiot because WS is one of the best examples of a game selling a system rather than a system selling a game in history.

I bought the console for other games, not Wii Sports.
Liar, you want to play tennis too

The thing that gets me is that only now do the competitors bundle games with their systems and its never a consistent incentive either. Just think how well Ratchet and Clank or Halo would have sold if it came with the system.

Isn't it a bit hypocritical to complain about the VGChartz 'z', while Joystiq does the same thing with their 'q'? :p

Zuburi: "How can something that's free be the "best-selling?" Is the USB cable in the ipod box the best-selling USB cable ever?"

Very astute observation - the title should be changed, as it's not nearly just semantics. The way it's worded implies that it's the most sought after or desired product given the choice of all others, when in all fairness the consumer had no choice. I think we should differentiate between the pack-ins or 'free' games and the 'best-selling' games. It should read 'most owned' game.

Maybe I'm being too much of a pedantic asshole??

Sorry, but yeah. I think the high demand + price for Wii Sports copies on ebay shows that the demand would still be there if it wasn't bundled.  People don't seem to be giving up their copies, no matter how shallow of an experience some people here think it is.  Also, the people who do are getting a good price for their copies, indicating high demand:  EBay Price Thread

That is interesting - I don't understand, if everyone gets it by default how can there be demand for it?

Are people losing their copies? Scratching their discs? Even still how many reported cases of this could possibly happen to create such a demand.

In any case I acknowledge the achievement and golf clap Nintendo on this feat. Congrats.

This is actually a fairly positive depiction of VGC. Most articles still tend to include a disclaimer along the lines of "we don't understand the big multi-syllable words in their FAQ, so they must be guessing!", but this one is just poking fun at the site's name, which I agree is horrible. Admittedly a bit funny coming from Joystiq, though. ^^