Folks may have been renting Xbox 360 titles like mad last year, but that didn’t do much for console sales. The NPD group announced sales figures for the Wii and DS earlier today and the numbers are astonishing.
Despite the current economic conditions, Americans purchased 10.17 million Wiis in the year 2008. Not only is this a huge sales figure, but it’s also the first time Americans have purchased 10 million units of a game console in a single year. The handheld DS came very close to the 10 million mark with 9.95 million units sold. Last year Nintendo moved 8.52 million DS portables. Of all game consoles sold in America, the Wii accounted for 55 percent sold while the DS took up a whopping 72 percent.
NPD data released for December and all of 2008 also included the following:
* The industry’s top 4 selling games of 2008 were: Wii Play™ at No. 1, Mario Kart™ Wii at No. 2, Wii Fit™ at No.3, and Super Smash Brothers™ Brawl, at No. 4.
* Industry annual revenues jumped 19% in 2008 over 2007, and Nintendo products were responsible for 99% of those additional retail dollars.
* Nintendo DS set another industry record for system sales in any month, with 3.04 million units sold in December.
* Wii broke its own monthly record, set in December 2007, by selling 2.14 million units last month.
* In December, Nintendo titles filled 20 of the top 30 spots on the best-seller list. Six games made for Nintendo systems placed in the top 10, including Wii Music™ for Wii (No. 9), which has now sold 865,000 units following its launch in October 2008, and Mario Kart DS for the Nintendo DS (No. 7), which has sold a total of 4.3 million units 38 months after launch.
* Activision’s Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero® World Tour, and MTV Games/EA’s* Rock Band Special Edition Bundle all sold more units on Nintendo platforms than any other platforms in 2008.
* More 3rd party units were sold for Wii than any other home consoles in December for the 2nd consecutive month.
* For the year, more than 132 million games were sold in America for play on Nintendo systems.