Wii Sports is the Most Successful Videogame of All Time - News

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by, posted on 03 January 2009

Including VGChartz software data for the week ending 27th December 2008, Wii Sports has now passed sales of Super Mario Bros (NES) at 40.24 million units, making it the best selling videogame of all time. The game, bundled in every country outside of Japan and South Korea, reached that milestone after 110 weeks of sales.

The top ten selling games of all time are shown below. All of the games are made by Nintendo and all games in the list have at some point in their lifespan been bundled with their respective console in at least one region.

Super Mario Bros , released between 1985 and 1987 across the USA, Japan, and Europe and came bundled with most NES consoles. The game accumulated its sales on an install base of 61.91 million NES. Nintendo’s Wii has sold more than 45 million units so far, according to the data provided by VGChartz.com, giving Wii Sports room for sales well beyond the 50 million units mark - depending on how long Nintendo continue to bundle Wii Sports with the Wii console.

There are various viewpoints as to whether a bundled game can be considered for the title of "best selling". Certainly many would argue that the forced sale of the game with the Wii console should eliminate it from this list. The point of view taken by VGChartz is that:

The bundling of Wii Sports with the Wii console is integral to the success of the Wii console - Wii Sports adds value to the package and isn't "given away" with the console. It is purchased alongside the console.

The game isn't bundled in Japan and has managed to sell at a 45% attach rate with the Wii console showing that many Wii owners in Japan bought a Wii for Wii Sports.

Bundle sales of all other games are counted. Super Mario Bros wouldn't have sold 40 million as a stand-alone title but who can say how many it would have sold - maybe 20 million, maybe 25 million. Same is true of Wii Sports, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Super Mario World and most of the other titles on the best seller list. Sure, the act of bundling the game with the console will serve to increase its sales but to totally remove the game because of the fact it has been bundled is not right either. It is totally conceivable that as a stand-alone title Wii Sports would have sold well over 20 million units by now given the attach rate seen in Japan and also seen with both Wii Play and Wii Fit in the west. So to remove the title also seems totally unfair - especially given point 1.



So there you have it - love it or loathe it Wii Sports is the most purchased game of all time and will only extend it's lead further in the coming months and years.

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