Nintendo’s Wii has overtaken Xbox 360 in lifetime sales to claim market leadership in a little over nine months after the system’s launch. The Xbox 360, which had a year head start on the Wii, is now second place globally. As of August 23, 2007, Wii had sold 10.57 million units compared to 10.51 million units for the Xbox 360. The 60,000 unit lead for Wii is a change from last week, when the Xbox 360 had a 20,000 unit lead.
“Two years ago, very few analysts would have predicted the Nintendo Wii would be market leader this generation,” VGChartz.com said in their announcement of the milestone. “The console outsold Microsoft’s Xbox 360 by a margin of 2.3 : 1 worldwide on average each week since its release, selling at an even faster rate than the most successful console ever created, Sony’s PlayStation 2, despite still being sold out in most major markets.”
VGChartz noted that: “This is the first time that a company has been market leader in the home console and the handheld market since 1994 when Nintendo’s Super NES and Gameboy dominated worldwide.” It is also the first time in over a decade that Nintendo has been #1 in overall sales of a next-gen console.
“Vgchartz.com data, which is based on sample data from retailers all over the world,” their press release says.
