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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The Importance of Wii Sports

The announcement that Wii Sports is the highest-selling game of all time brought a lot of controversy. It doesn't count because of bundles, it doesn't count because it's a tech demo, it just doesn't deserve it, et cetera.

I intend to demonstrate that Wii Sports is not only the highest-selling game of this generation, but also probably the most-played game of this generation. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to make one assumption: That information from the Nintendo Channel is representative of all Wii owners in the Americas. I know this is probably not the case (it's a self-selecting sample), but it's more fun than waiting for better information to show up.

Stephen Totilo has been doing most of the work for me by periodically checking on the average play time that various Wii games recieve:

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/01/05/wii-software-stats-january-update/#more-16127

I'm going to multiply his average play times by LTD sales of selected games in the Americas to get the total number of hours these games have been played on the Wii.

Game Average Hours Played Units Sold (Millions) Total Hours Played (Millions)
Wii Sports 34.8 20.8 724
Super Smash Bros. Brawl 64.9 4.8 312
Guitar Hero 3 Wii 58.7 3.0 176
Mario Kart Wii 27.3 5.8 158
LoZ: Twilight Princess 46.5 2.7 126
Wii Play 9.7 10.0 97

As you can see, no Wii game in the Americas has seen even half the number of play hours that Wii Sports has seen. Guitar Hero 3 on all platforms might come closest, assuming all versions of the game have been played as heavily as the Wii version.

What about other console games? Sadly, I haven't seen any stats for other platforms. But I can tell you how many average hours these best-selling HD games would have to be played to rack up more total hours than Wii Sports:

Grand Theft Auto IV: 111.3 hours

Call of Duty 4: 104.9 hours

Halo 3: 113 hours

That's a heckuva lotta gaming, even for the hardest of core! It's not impossible that one of these games might have more total playtime than Wii Sports, but I consider that very unlikely.

All of this data uses American numbers, multiplatform games count both 360 and PS3 SKUs. US sales represent about 66% of these games sales, while representing only 50% of Wii Sports' sales. So worldwide play time likely skews the comparison even more in favour of Wii Sports.

In conclusion, Wii Sports is not only the highest-selling console game of all time, it is also quite likely the most-played console game of this generation, and hence the most influential game this generation has yet produced.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

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"but I consider that very unlikely."


Your argument is based on assumptions.. words like "likely" "unlikely" "quite" are all weasel words --- ambiguous words unsupported by facts. Until you find hard facts, your conclusion is meaningless.



freebird4 said:
"but I consider that very unlikely."


Your argument is based on assumptions.. words like "likely" "unlikely" "quite" are all weasel words --- ambiguous words unsupported by facts. Until you find hard facts, your conclusion is meaningless.

 

I stated this in my post. I also stated that it's more fun to play with data which is flawed than it is to wait around for data which is never going to come. Sorry, but I don't have funding to actually do a survey on the play time of every major game which came out this gen. Dismiss this if you like, but nobody else is going to live up to your unreasonable expectations.

Edit: I should add, if you have any additional data, it would be most welcome.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

freebird, wtf.

These numbers aren't perfect, but the difference is so large that you cannot claim it's due to faulty data

Nothing even comes close to Wii Sports this generation, or indeed ever in terms of total playtime



scottie said:
freebird, wtf.

These numbers aren't perfect, but the difference is so large that you cannot claim it's due to faulty data

Nothing even comes close to Wii Sports this generation, or indeed ever in terms of total playtime

 

There is one which I'm pretty sure beats everything, and it's not Wii Sports. Ten million subscribers, some of whom literally spend half the year logged in... as in 12 hours a day average play time for over a year. World of Warcraft carries at least as much cultural weight as Wii Sports, and is the reason I was careful to specify console games.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

Around the Network

Ok yeah, I forgot to add console in there



Twilight Princess have so much hours avg?



^^ I logged about 80 hours on my first play through and about 60 hours on my second play through so i bring up the average;) I like to take my time going through Zelda games.



famousringo said:
scottie said:
freebird, wtf.

These numbers aren't perfect, but the difference is so large that you cannot claim it's due to faulty data

Nothing even comes close to Wii Sports this generation, or indeed ever in terms of total playtime

There is one which I'm pretty sure beats everything, and it's not Wii Sports. Ten million subscribers, some of whom literally spend half the year logged in... as in 12 hours a day average play time for over a year. World of Warcraft carries at least as much cultural weight as Wii Sports, and is the reason I was careful to specify console games.

I think the importance of Wii Sports will be more in its influence on console gaming from here on out, ala Super Mario Bros. In twenty years, the entire course of gaming might be traced back to the movement started by Wii Sports.

World of Warcraft undoubtedly has many times more hours put into it, but it will not have the same kind of impact on the rest of the industry over time.



famousringo said:
scottie said:
freebird, wtf.

These numbers aren't perfect, but the difference is so large that you cannot claim it's due to faulty data

Nothing even comes close to Wii Sports this generation, or indeed ever in terms of total playtime

 

There is one which I'm pretty sure beats everything, and it's not Wii Sports. Ten million subscribers, some of whom literally spend half the year logged in... as in 12 hours a day average play time for over a year. World of Warcraft carries at least as much cultural weight as Wii Sports, and is the reason I was careful to specify console games.

 

 One thing about that comparison though is that Wii Sports has most certainly been played by many more people than the number of disks that are out there. On the other hand the number of people who have played WoW is not nearly so much higher than its subscription base.