Clearly, the Nintendo Wii is mopping the floor with … well, just about everything, in terms of hardware sales. Which is fantastic for Nintendo, because their last several efforts had left many industry people and fans doubting the company’s abilities to compete in the modern console world (handhelds are, of course, a completely different story). Remember the days of the N64? Sure, it was a powerful bugger, but it really got destroyed by the PS1, laying the groundwork for a second shellacking in the Gamecube vs PS2 round. And of course there was the entrance of Microsoft … which further encouraged the rumors of the demise of Nintendo. There was no way the market could support three systems, right? Ask the Dreamcast. And while Nintendo produced some truly smashing games for both the N64 and the Cube, it was clearly the poor kid on the block in terms of sales.

Obviously, the Nintendo Wii changed things. The Wii had sold like hotcakes*and made the PS3 look silly. How much did it change things? Well, in just over a year (two weeks over, to be precise) the Nintendo Wii has already outsold the Gamecube. Yes, more people have purchased a Nintendo Wii in one year than people who had purchased a Cube over the entire lifetime of the system. And that’s not even counting the boatloads of people who are still itching to get their hands on one but just can’t find it on the shelves.

[ Wii Sales Comparion Charts - Data from Famitsu ]

[ Media Create ]

*The hotcakes phrase still baffles me.