Wii becomes best-selling current generation console in Europe

by David Hinkle on Jan 11th 2012 11:30AM

We're always wary to talk numbers and Europe in the same breath, mostly because numbers over there don't mean the same as they do here. "One pound is a half kilogram? What does that even mean?" Luckily for us, there's no way to misconstrue the fact that the Wii is now the best-selling console in Europe this generation.

The European chapter of the Wii Defense Force is popping the bubbly now, we imagine, celebrating the 30 million Wii consoles in the region as of 2011's end. New console bundles brought a new "value Wii" into the region, The PS3 isn't far behind, however, with reports of over 22 million consoles sold at the end of August. But, the Wii figure looks even better when compared to the GameCube, which sold 4.7 million throughout its five year lifetime in Europe and Australia, combined.

On the peripheral front, Nintendo's also got robust sales figures for its Wii Balance Board and its bundled titles, Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, to celebrate. 22.67 million copies of Wii Fit and 19.31 million copies of Wii Fit Plus have been sold worldwide.

Source: Eurogamer, Nintendo

Tags: balance-board, europe, nintendo, pal, sales, wii, wii-balance-board, wii-fit, Wii-Fit-Plus, wii-jr

Reader Comments (62)

What has the Xbox 360 done there sales wise?

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

Don't know any exact numbers, but what's always interesting to remark is that the PS3 and 360 were always said to be neck-and-neck with each other. Not that that answered your question, but I'm just saying.

@Shadowbender

yea, thats what I thought too.

FTA: "We can't find specific European Xbox 360 sales."

So, we only know the sales figures for 2 of the 3 current-gen consoles... but Wii is the best-selling!!

@Centaur According to Wikipedia, the Xbox 360 has sold 13.7 million units in EMEA region(Europe, Middle East and Africa).

@Centaur

Xbox is definitely 3rd in Europe. It has really been lagging outside the states.

@tylerh1701

We here in the states buy stuff because they sell a lot, because of their popularity, regardless of the quality.

When it comes to sales, Xbox 360 is to consoles what Call of Duty is to FPS'.

Just the fact that Xbox 360 was canceled in parts of Japan shows how much variety in the genre of its exclusives games the console lacks.

PS3 hasn't sold more than 360 worldwide, but it has a reasonable balance between how much it is selling in different continents.

We here in the U.S. pray and take shit from popular but not necessarily better products.

Ah sorry, I didn't realise Joystiq was so US-centric.

I'll use another game site instead.

@b3n
Uh, it's a US-based site. What did you expect?

@b3n You do that.

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

I thought it was an international site.

@b3n There's plenty of European gaming sites you know. Just saying.

@b3n
http://www.eurogamer.net/

*cough*

@b3n

joystiq is a subsidiary of AOL

@b3n
So the article is about sales numbers in Europe, and you conclude that this website is too US centric? Huh?

The Wii just now became the best selling current gen console in Europe? I would have thought they had hit that milestone years ago.

Bye.

@MEGATOOL
Hey, why is this guy being down-rated?

We should be ENCOURAGING him to leave.

@SushiGummy

My guess is that this comment was a reply to the guy above who said he was leaving, but Joystiq's almost foolproof comment system somehow didn't post it as a reply.

***prays that this gets posted as a reply***

@tylerh1701 Yeah, it was a reply fail to b3n. It would be so ironic if this reply fails, also.

@MEGATOOL Aw, now I feel bad about downvoting you :(

So was the PS3 the best selling current gen console in Europe before but the Wii just passed it up this year? Or did they just wait until now to announce that?

Just think of all that dust collecting and disappointment... Way to go, Europe!!

@MikeStrathmore To bored to type something clever so YOU IDIOT!

@byaboy Great grammar there, kid. Wii teach you how to craft a sentence, too?

@MikeStrathmore Ah, good old "collecting dust" comments. Nice to know there still people completely ignorant of the Wii's surprisingly diverse library.

@MikeStrathmore

Well why did you buy a video game console if you don't like video games?

@MikeStrathmore

Odd, my Wii gets used more than my 360 lately.
Just because it doesn't have "Teh 1337 grafix" doesn't mean it can't have some amazing games...
IN FACT!
As far as I know more people prefer the PS1 to N64 even though N64 was much, much more powerful. PS2 was the best selling console last generation even though both Gamecube and Xbox were more powerful. There are plenty of good Wii games out, you just have to open your mind to be able to see them.

I'm going to go find a copy of Metal Gear Solid and beat that game again now, kthxbai.

You yanks really need to get with the metric system. It's just you and a couple hole in the wall countries that aren't on it yet.

@C1 We tried in '75. Apparently we were too lazy to follow through.

@C1
Learning the Imperial system is my biggest regret in since finishing school. While some jobs do use the Imperial system, I find myself requiring the Metric system far more.

Damn you US schools!

@C1 our system is working pretty well in construction. I doubt it will change anytime soon.

Any software sales data? The Wii's not winning on that front.

@NathanDTS Aside from the 40 million copies of Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus?

I'm not dissing the Wii, it has some great games, but most of the people I know who have one (I have all 3 major consoles) don't play it that much or have traded it in. So it may have sold a lot more consoles than the other two but I'd say it's selling a lot less games.

I think the Xbox 360 is more or less on par with PS3 but the Blu Ray player has been a big selling point, I know people who aren't gamers who have bought PS3s for the Blu Ray player alone. As stand-alone BD players come down in price, I can see that not being the case so much.

@Styli

This post sounds like it was written in 2007. Did you just realize all those facts?

@Styli
Wow! It's a message from the PAST.
Let's try decoding it!

@Yuglyoshi

What are you talking about? What "facts" did I realise? I merely said it as it was. I do know people who bought PS3s for the Blu Ray player alone, they may have done so a few years back. And I stand by everything I said about the Wii... Maybe, in Ireland, we're 4 years behind the rest of the world. I'm looking through my post trying to see which bit is from 2007... You kids, making an old guy feel old :-P

But they're missing nearly half of the year's sales of the PS3, most importantly including the Christmas holiday season! And considering that the PS3 sold 22 million up until August and the Wii only 30 million in the whole year it might be jumping the gun a little, not to mention that the Xbox360 is not on that list either...

@AllYourBAcesHigh

Who is missing that?

@AllYourBAcesHigh

Don't answer that. I'm tired and apparently only half-read that article.

My console has more marketshare than yours, its automatically better! Yet that doesn't keep me from enjoying gems like the Saturn and Dreamcast.

@nerdydesi1

You're wrong, both of those consoles were terrible because they didn't sell well. Geeze.

/sarcasm

To the author of this article: You do realize that more countries use the Metric system than not? Do you realize how ignorant you sound when you assume that no one understands what a kilogram is? I fully realize you were making a joke, but when your in the minority of countries who use the metric system, you come off as arrogant and a little dumb. There is a world that exists outside of the red-white-and-blue.

@JManND

Yeah, a third world...

@JManND

"There is a world that exists outside of the red-white-and-blue."

It's called Not america, and no, we don't care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx_a_10HVOo

@JManND
You realize you can find the author by looking under the title right? And surprise surprise, it's David Hinkle, the least-witty writer on this site (besides maybe that ugly Jessica girl).

Well I suppose it's hard for some people, trying to make post after post "witty" or "funny", so maybe for more straightforward articles like this you could just not try to force it so much?

@A Sandwich

Dude, I hope you are trolling and really do not think that we are that great.

I mean, the guy does have a point... we here want to change almost everything and call what is normal, "weird"

Good example, what the hell is 01/11/2012?

Every other country uses 11/01/2012

Plus it makes more sense to first write and mention what changes constantly, the day, not the month.

This makes it even sadder that Nintendo is shooting it in the head and living it for dead because of Wii U which the general public still think is a new controller, brilliant!

Where's the classic Joystiq Nintendo bashing in this article? I feel so naked without it...

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Wii Fit Plus

Wii becomes best-selling current generation console in Europe

Reader Comments (62)

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:44AM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:24PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:26PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:46AM Centaur said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:57AM MEGATOOL said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:11PM tylerh1701 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 5:58PM Joysticker said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:47AM b3n said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:06PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:11PM Roto13 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:13PM b3n said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:20PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 2:19PM pluupy said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 4:01PM whatkey said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 4:20PM OmeletPants said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:51AM MEGATOOL said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:52AM MEGATOOL said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:01PM SushiGummy said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:13PM tylerh1701 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:58PM MEGATOOL said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 6:11AM Hank Hill said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:56AM Nastt said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 11:59AM MikeStrathmore said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:09PM byaboy said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:16PM MikeStrathmore said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 4:33PM Nergy said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 5:47PM CrashMan said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:33AM Zethion said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:00PM C1 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 2:21PM HobbitGamer said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 2:23PM pluupy said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 8:54PM 30yearGamer said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:01PM NathanDTS said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:13PM Roto13 said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:01PM Styli said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:16PM Yuglyoshi said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 2:24PM pluupy said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 6:52PM Styli said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:10PM AllYourBAcesHigh said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:38AM Zethion said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:40AM Zethion said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:21PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Jan 12th 2012 12:37AM Zethion said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 12:27PM JManND said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:07PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:49PM Co said

Posted: Jan 11th 2012 1:50PM Vic Fontaine said

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