Wii U Sales Only Projected to Reach 25 Million Units Sold in Console's Lifetime
With both the PS4 and Xbox One out now, this could be the beginning of the end for the Wii U, which is only expected to sell 25 million units in its lifetime.
The PS4 has already sold one million units in a day, and the Xbox One is on its way there as well. According to Geek, Xbox 360 and PS3 sold roughly 80 million consoles each over their seven years of existence. The Wii U predecessor, Wii, sold over 100 million since its arrival.
The last major console to sell so little was Nintendo's Gamecube, which sold around 22 million. As now the Wii U's sales for the little over a year old console are extremely low, and according to DFC analyst David Coles, Nintendo's goal may be to just try and beat out the Gamecube.
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During the summer, Nintendo was selling the Wii U at a loss, and they had just come off their worst quarter only selling 160,000 units between April and June-- a number that was less than half the amount of the previous quarter.
Up until that point they had only sold 3.61 million consoles over the six-month span. Nintendo reported that so far they had lost nearly $174 million on the lackluster sales.
However, once they chopped down the price by $50 and started coming out with solid first-party games, things began to turn around, but the new consoles that arrived this month are the main focus now.
After a strong end to October and early November where Wii U sales spiked in Japan because of Wii Party U, the console was outsold by Xbox 360 and the 3DS for the entire month of October. 360 sold 166,000 units while the 3DS pushed an astounding 452,000.
Still Japan's rapid adoption of the Wii U is greatly helping Nintendo. In the first week of November alone, Japan sold 40,000 Wii U units, a 1,500 percent increase. In September they sold only about 1,000 a week, according to Polygon.
Only time will tell if Mario, Link, and the rest of Nintendo's stars can help resurrect the falling Wii U.
