Amazon sold 17 Wiis a second (while in stock)

78 Comments by Christopher Grant Dec 27th 2007 3:30PM
Filed under: Nintendo Wii

Amazon dropped some retail factoids on BusinessWeek, gloating that the 2007 holiday season was the internet retailer's "strongest to date." Leading those sales: the Wii, which sold an impressive 17 consoles a second while Amazon had them in stock (read: not for long). We're guessing that Black Friday allotment of $79 Wiis didn't hurt. Any one of you special, special snowflakes distinguished enough to be one of those 17 people who purchased a Wii that one second on Amazon this holiday?

[Thanks, Josh]

Tags: Amazon, Retail

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

mr nimblewick: Dec 27th 2007; 3:43PM

For the first time ever, my siblings and I all own a console. And it's the same console. They used to just play my video games. Now they play the Wii.

I find this to be remarkable.

James: Dec 27th 2007; 8:59PM

It's the same here. Everyone is playing the Wii, the sadistic folk are going for 100% on MP3 and Galaxy whereas the non-gamers are on WarioWare and Wii Sports every hour of the day.
It's a very different scene compared to 5 years ago where a gaming machine would *never* be sat in the living room.

Jeff: Dec 27th 2007; 3:43PM

My 9 year old cousin was somehow smart enough to want an Xbox 360 for Christmas. His parents have a huge HD TV, so I explained to them the need for HDMI cables to get it looking beautiful.

Christmas comes, and they got him a Wii. They decided he'd love the motion controls and that it would look great on their TV.

Fuck adults who don't know anything, and fuck the Wii.

Obie: Dec 27th 2007; 3:46PM

Such anger, you know what cures anger? Some Mario galaxies! ;)

religiousjedi: Dec 27th 2007; 3:51PM

The hate...it hurts!!!!!!

Anyways, congratulations on another great holiday season Wii!!!

hvnlysoldr: Dec 27th 2007; 3:53PM

Think maybe the parents wanted one for themselves so picked it instead.

mr nimblewick: Dec 27th 2007; 3:55PM

I think hvnlysoldr wins the cookie.

playwhutyalike (hates games lists): Dec 27th 2007; 4:18PM

How about fuck you.

Szu: Dec 27th 2007; 4:20PM

Wow, I noticed a possible trend for parents. It started with the Wii. Then they're buy him that new car next year, but he won't be old enough to drive it till he's 16. So they're just drive it for him.

Parents are getting cunning, that's good and bad.

Obie: Dec 27th 2007; 4:20PM

Seems Jeff wanted to mooch at his little cousins house, but he got Nintendownd!

vidGuy: Dec 27th 2007; 4:22PM

My 360 sure looks good on the 50" plasma HDTV in the basement. Of course, the only game anyone in the house except me knows about is Rock Band. Every other time a console is on, it's the Wii. Somehow, non-gamers prefer fun games over graphics. Who knew?

Szu: Dec 27th 2007; 4:25PM

People actually play games for fun. Intriguing concept. I need to subscribe to your newsletter.

playwhutyalike (hates games lists): Dec 27th 2007; 4:30PM

I can't wait till I buy my 360 or PS3. Then I can go into forums and type, Fuck Wii! and maybe, just maybe, my penis might grow 1/2 an inch. Than it will be twice as big!

ThornedVenom: Dec 27th 2007; 7:04PM

It's not because you have a huge HDTV that you need a 360.

It's a bit like saying that since you have wide streets, you have to buy a Hummer.

Matters: Dec 27th 2007; 8:55PM

Maybe the 360 was out of their budget after all the other stuff they bought? Adults don't know anything? Maybe kids like you just need to wait until their older and actually have a clue about jobs, money and life in general.

Does it not humiliate you to be a crybaby brat in a public forum/blog? How do you get upset about a GIFT??? Especially one that ISN'T EVEN YOURS!!!

roxxxo: Dec 28th 2007; 12:17AM

also you don't need the hdmi cable, the 360 comes with HD component cables

Zsavior: Dec 28th 2007; 9:12AM

Now you see Jeff's his 9yr old cousin wanted an Xbox360 yea I am sure the xbox360 is cranking out the right games for for a 9yr old. See all that crap about Parents need to take responsibility for their children goes out the window when they don't pick the game system certain gamers support. But yea I am very sure your cousin was only going to play Viva Pinata.

So for your 9yr old cousin, they would have bought an Xbox360 in which what games would you ask A 9yr old to play on that system? Seems to me this is a case of good parenting. Unless it is ok to buy crap games like SOnic the hedgehog and Crash bandiCoot as long as it is your system of choice?

Obie: Dec 27th 2007; 3:44PM

Note to self:
1) Build time machine ( preferably from a Delorean)
2) Go back to Wii launch, and buy 100 systems
3) Wait a year..
4) Sell em all on Ebay at high mark-up
5) Become rich
6) Blow the cash on ale and hookers

Yes...perfect!

Rob Accomando: Dec 27th 2007; 3:46PM

better yet, make PAINTINGS of Wiis and sell them on Ebay.

Alucard: Dec 27th 2007; 3:59PM

yes perfect now do the same but go to the future and see what happened to the PS3

JS Beckerist: Dec 27th 2007; 5:17PM

Better yet, forget the Wii's and ale!

steve: Dec 27th 2007; 8:18PM

I'd just buy nintendo stock.

Vigi: Dec 27th 2007; 6:15PM

Why wait a year? Wasn't the markup on Ebay right after launch even higher than now?

I approve of the ale, though.

Christmas NiGHTS: Dec 28th 2007; 3:11PM

I agree with steve, go back to 2004 and get Nintendo stock

2004, when the GC was dead, GBA was on the way out, and everyone knew the PSP would kick the DS's ass six ways from sunday

Alucard: Dec 27th 2007; 3:45PM

go to kbtoys.com or kmart.com they have Wiis in stock

Speddy: Dec 27th 2007; 3:50PM

Yeah, and I'm the toothfairy. (I'm not)

Speddy: Dec 27th 2007; 3:48PM

Amazon had 2.3 seconds of sales??

FidliousWong: Dec 27th 2007; 3:52PM

Wiis sold out? Not suprising. PSP-2000 being the second most popular holiday console on Amazon? Suprising.

FOXHOUND: Dec 27th 2007; 4:00PM

Both were in heavy demand locally... even tougher was finding a bundle-less Wii in stores, as well as the PSP-2000 core or DAXTER-Pack.

Zertoss: Dec 27th 2007; 4:06PM

I got the Star Wars PSP-2000 pack. Unfortunately, I didn't get a memory stick for it or enough Christmas money to buy one, so it's pretty much useless at the moment until I get paid tomorrow.

Ah well, at least I got Zack & Wiki finally.

bender: Dec 27th 2007; 4:11PM

"Fuck adults who don't know anything, and fuck the Wii."

Not only do I find your hatred for a white hunk of plasitic, but why would you also use the f-bomb against your own reletives for a gift your cousin got? Maybe your jealous that you didn't get one?

bender: Dec 27th 2007; 4:13PM

...hunk of plastic *troubling*

Gavin: Dec 27th 2007; 4:21PM

I talked to my buddy Wayne on Christmas day. He and his wife bought themselves a Wii last year as a present for themselves. I asked what games he had for it and he sais "Oh, we just play that bowling game that came with it when we have people over". That is the casual gamer and the typical non-gamer's experience with this system. It is an impulse buy that ends up collecting dust.

Szu: Dec 27th 2007; 4:35PM

Yeah, but you gotta admit that it's a helluva lot of impulse buys every month worldwide across several diverse demographics.

mr nimblewick: Dec 27th 2007; 4:32PM

The casual audience is going to need a lot of TV advertising to buy more games. They have to make the jump from Wii being "the Wiisports machine" to it being something that can play additional games.

But, I suppose this is why nintendo wanted to make a profit on each system sold. Just in case.

religiousjedi: Dec 27th 2007; 11:46PM

You're right...I've had my Wii since launch, and it's collecting dust now... :(

Granted, I'm outta the US for two weeks, so it's expected... :)

playwhutyalike (hates games lists): Dec 27th 2007; 4:28PM

Here we go with the collecting dust thing again. So what. Look at all the shit people buy that collects dust. CD's, DVD's, tools, exercise equipment, other consoles, and so on.

How is their impulse buy affecting you?

BIGGEN: Dec 27th 2007; 7:49PM

i'll give you the exercise equipment collecting dust comment, that's 100% spot on, but most people i know that bought a wii (including myself) see it collecting dust. but most of the people i know that own one are 30 or over. i would love to sell mine to someone who wants one but can't find one.

playwhutyalike (hates games lists): Dec 27th 2007; 8:04PM

On that same note I'm buying a 360 or PS3 when GTA IV comes out. Guess what it is going to do after that?
Collect dust. I'm not going to go into a forum and cry about it though

James: Dec 27th 2007; 9:02PM

My items don't get dusty because I clean.

Urza: Dec 27th 2007; 4:36PM

I happen to get my Wii when I walked into my local game store to pick up Call of Duty 4 on the prerelease launch day. They got a shipment of Wiis at the same time. One person ahead of me was there specifically for the Wii. I grabbed it up myself along with Zelda, Metroid, and RE4. Wii Sports was fun but got boring fast. Didn't like Zelda all the much, the motion stuff is annoying. Metroid was rad. I didn't much like RE4 on the Wii.

I don't think motion capture is the way to go and have a feeling next gen won't have it. It's not accurate enough when you want it to be, it's too clumsy most of the time, and in the case of PS3; gets in the way all the time.

I can understand the hate and would suggest getting a 360.

Sidepocket: Dec 28th 2007; 2:56AM

Right. Just how like in '97 people thought that rumble fad would not carry over. It just makes your hands hurt and distracts you from pressing buttons. Right.

Geist: Dec 30th 2007; 5:08AM

You didn't like RE4? Madness. The control scheme was the best on the Wii. Would've been better with a mouse on the PC, but they royally screwed that one up.

Squirrel3D: Dec 27th 2007; 4:43PM

What's wrong Jeff, mad becuase the Wii is outselling every other console right now? Go get some anger management courses....emo.

ScottyGEE32: Dec 27th 2007; 4:57PM

That post makes me instantly hate you...Unless you're joking, in which case, it needs moar obvious sarcasm.

Calling people"jealous" because some technology is selling more than another is incredibly stupid and I can't believe it gets thrown around so much. What's there to be jealous of? Does it make the wii suddenly able to do all these new things? no...

The only reason I or any other person who doesn't have a child's/down syndrome/retarded/your brain would ever be "jealous" of such a thing is when looking at the CEO's of these businesses. The "it prints money!" joke/quote is what I'm referring to there.

Korova: Dec 27th 2007; 5:19PM

Scotty, you simple have not peered into the dark side for as long as others have.

Squirrel3D: Dec 28th 2007; 12:14AM

Why don't you join him scotty, or better yet just drop dead. I never asked you or anyone to like me. It's just when people like him get all angry just becuase a kid's parents made a decision to get a Wii instead of X360, it just shows the lack of maturity he has.

And no I'm not a fanboy and I don't even own a Wii yet. I own a Xbox 360 (and my gamertag name is the same as this one). Hope I took away whatever "your a fanboy" comebacks you had in mind. So go cry your river in someone else's canyon.