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See the original image at arstechnica.com

Nintendo tops '07 sales numbers in industry's best year ever

arstechnica.com — 2007 saw Nintendo once again slide comfortably into the number one position in the gaming industry, but sales for everyone were up as the gaming industry saw a 43 percent increase in sales over 2006.

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  • BlueSkyfish, on 01/18/2008, -11/+34Wow, I knew Nintendo was doing good, but I never knew they were doing this good.
    Things look bad for Sony. The PS2 outsold both the PSP and PS3. I was expecting this for a few months after launch, but PS3 was released over a year ago. It also doesn't help that Factor 5 went back to Nintendo after the Lair fiasco.
    It seems Xbox360 is sitting comfortably in second place.
    • truspector, on 01/18/2008, -12/+16http://sony.justgotowned.com
    • appleswitch, on 01/18/2008, -18/+20The PS3 had a pathetic launch, but the PS3 is looking better and better each day with releases, price drops and the blu-ray success.
      • seraph582, on 01/18/2008, -11/+10apparently the ps2 is still far more appealing LOLOL
      • BlueSkyfish, on 01/18/2008, -1/+8But the PS3 and 360 are going for the same market (FPS and racing games) and the 360 is already well established in the market due to its one year head start. Maybe that would be true if they both launched at the same time, but right now the PS3 looks kind of hopeless. If they want to win, they'd have to try to appeal to the Japanese gamer, where Sony has the biggest advantage over Microsoft. Maybe add more JRPGs than shooters and GTA type games that only do well in Europe and America.
    • HMTKSteve, on 01/18/2008, -13/+10The PS3 is ahead of where the 360 was this far into its launch cycle. You could use this same line of thinking to say that the 360 sucks because the PS2 has still sold more units than it has.
      • lazersailer, on 01/18/2008, -4/+4Or that the PS2 is still a decent system.
        It's become so small and with the USB support and games still being released it is perfect for casual gamers.
        I don't want an expensive system for my dorm. the PS2 was perfect.
        • BinaryFragger, on 01/18/2008, -1/+4The PS2 is $129.99 here in Canada -- dirt cheap.
          I still play mine, mainly for Gran Turismo 4. Despite its age, it's still a lot of fun, especially with the Logitech steering wheel. The system should kept me occupied until the PS3 and 360 become more affordable (despite the price drops, $400 for a console is still too rich for my blood).

          The only 'modern' system I presently own is the DS Lite, which I have trouble putting down. Damn you, Contra 4.
      • BabyWookie, on 01/18/2008, -2/+6Look at the ***** charts again. The 360 did outsell the PS2, both in December and in 2007. Also, the only thing that's relevant is where the PS3 is today, which is, in a distant third place.
    • EelfinnTy, on 01/18/2008, -9/+6For what it's worth VG Charts shows that the PS3 has sold more since its launch than the 360 over the same time frame.
      http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=Wii®1=Al ...

      It also shows the Wii outselling the DS when you compare launch dates.
      http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=Wii®1=Al ...
      • Smwbigboss, on 01/19/2008, -1/+3"For what it's worth"

        Absolutely nothing. The industry grows every year, if you adjust for growth, you'd see different results.
    • themastersb, on 01/18/2008, -2/+8I think Nintendo definitely deserves this win. With such a great innovative, affordable and enjoyable system and great customer service other companies should be following in their footsteps.
  • iraq, on 01/18/2008, -3/+11Nintendo was quiet for a decade or so -- at least that's true in the U.S. -- but the Wii coupled with their always successful portable game boy has them walking on water. Were they able to carve in an entirely new niche within gaming or did they really hurt one of the other major consoles and which will be the first to die if the market can't handle them all?
    • Zap2, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1i would call the new market NIntendo is going after a "NIche"

      Since its as big, if not bigger then the old market.
      • daborg, on 01/20/2008, -0/+1And by "would" you mean "wouldn't"?
      • grumbel, on 01/20/2008, -0/+2There are still more XBox360 and PS3 combined around then Wiis, so the old hardcore market is still there and doing well, it just happens to be split up between two competitors, while Wii is dominating its "niche".
  • Sensai, on 01/18/2008, -13/+4itprintsmoney.gif
  • logicalnoise, on 01/18/2008, -3/+27hooray for accurate properly tabulated sales numbers. digg.
  • svivian, on 01/18/2008, -3/+11I'm suprised there's only one DS game in the top 10, given that the console double all the others. Anyway, rock on Nintendo. The DS is awesome!
    • kingmanic, on 01/18/2008, -0/+7The DS market is not hetero genius so it's harder to get something with broad market appeal. It keeps the hardcore busy with gems like front mission, Etrian oddesy, Advanced wars; whiel the kids and girls get their fluffy nintendogs and cooking mamma. Subsequently it means it can't generate the huge sales numbers for any one game due to the diversity of it's user base.
  • Brad324, on 01/18/2008, -14/+30I'll trade my PS3 for a wii, straight up.
    • Zamfir, on 01/18/2008, -21/+5...if you actually owned a PS3, troll.
      • Renton, on 01/18/2008, -3/+18Zamfir calling somebody else a troll? That's like the pot calling the kettle black.
        • Ndiggnation, on 01/18/2008, -0/+6It's more like the KingGoonie calling TruSpector a Zamfir..
    • Ajajadude, on 01/18/2008, -20/+8Would you also trade a Corvette for a Celica, straight up? What kind of genius would give up the extra money?

      Oh, yeah, a troll.
      • tendonut, on 01/18/2008, -1/+6But doesn't a Corevette show off it's advantage immediately? Or can you not buy tires for the Corvette until 2 years after you buy it?
    • plastek, on 01/18/2008, -22/+10I would gladly trade my Wii for a second PS3. I haven't played it since last year. I took one look at Mario Galaxy, and decided it's probably time to sell the little white toy.
      • fezzler, on 01/18/2008, -6/+21You are supposed to play it, not just look at it. That's probably why you don't enjoy your Wii.
      • kingmanic, on 01/18/2008, -6/+8If my GF never played mario party 8 I'd have sold my wii on ebay for x3 what she paid to get it for me. Wii is not for everyone.
      • Microdot, on 01/18/2008, -12/+4im with plastek. my son wants to sell his to buy games for his ps3. contact me if you want to buy it.
    • bjs3171, on 01/18/2008, -10/+4ok. i have one and i'm starting to think I'd like the ps3 better.
    • digggggggggg, on 01/18/2008, -8/+3Well, I find myself playing ps3 a lot more than wii.
    • BabyWookie, on 01/18/2008, -6/+7Don't. I own all three consoles and the Wii gets played the least, by far.
  • 93TILL503, on 01/18/2008, -4/+13I think it's time to fire up the old Nintendo Power subscription.
    • spickly, on 01/18/2008, -1/+7I'd actually love to see subscription figures for Nintendo Power since the Wii launched.
    • smackafiyah, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2I feel old, I've been a subscriber since the clay Mario cover back in '88
    • Yarnage, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1I thought Nintendo was stopping Nintendo power? oh well
  • otakushark, on 01/18/2008, -14/+7At over two years in the marketplace, the 360 is a mature platform. The PS3 is only now starting to hit it's stride. The sales numbers from hardware launch tell a different story. http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php
  • Waskonator, on 01/18/2008, -5/+14All i have to say, can be spelled:
    SSBB FTW
  • morningmatters, on 01/18/2008, -10/+15This is a major win for casual gamers. Fun > Graphics.
    • Varz, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1Well hopefully it's not a loss for us others.
      I hope game developers don't start thinking it's not profitable to make RPGs, FPSs etc. and we end up with a heap of crappy casual games.
  • HMTKSteve, on 01/18/2008, -6/+23You have to count BOTH Pokemon DS games as one!!! Doing so would knock Halo 3 out of the top spot!
    • logicalnoise, on 01/18/2008, -2/+11why? Nintendo split the games up to make more money why lump them together now?
      • HMTKSteve, on 01/18/2008, -1/+13Because they are the same game. They should also lump all version of Guitar Hero 3 together for sales data.
    • phr0ze, on 01/18/2008, -0/+12The games are exactly the same, only a moron would buy both. These two titles do need to be lumped together. It's like not counting the unrated version of a movie in the total sales for the movie.
    • doyoulikeworms, on 01/18/2008, -10/+5Why the ***** was HMTKSteve dugg down? Which frat ***** logged onto digg with a stick up his ass? Go get drunk and play Halo 3 some more with the bros.
    • nonfamous, on 01/18/2008, -4/+2Agreed, but you should also count Wii Sports as the #1 selling game of the year. It sold 6.29M copies in 2007 compared to Halo 3's 4.82. Yeah, it was bundled with hardware, but so was Wii Play which still got counted as #2. So software should be: #1 Wii Sports, #2 Pokemon DS, #3 Halo 3, #4 Wii Play.
      • HMTKSteve, on 01/19/2008, -1/+1Don't forget, NPD only covers sales in the Americas. Worldwide Wii Play likely beat out Halo 3.
  • cozb, on 01/18/2008, -4/+5i love my WII
  • LordofChaosIori, on 01/18/2008, -1/+4I have to say that I got Pokemon Diamond on launch day, and I still play it to this day, I honestly don't play Halo 3 since I got it because I was so disappointed with the campaign mode, but the 360 has definitely locked its' position as second place.
  • cozb, on 01/18/2008, -1/+7 when is wii fit coming out for the US?
  • ociris, on 01/18/2008, -5/+11Hoping for an even better year for both MS and Nintendo.
    Sony has now become the new gamecube.
    • BlueSkyfish, on 01/18/2008, -1/+17The gap between Gamecube and Xbox wasn't as dramatic as the gap between PS3 and Xbox360 (it was less than 3million, I believe)

      Please don't insult the Gamecube by comparing it to the PS3.
      • TheMarenum, on 01/18/2008, -1/+12Yeah! Not to mention the PS3 isn't in a nice, easy to store, compact cube.
        • battletrax, on 01/18/2008, -0/+3Don't remind me of my companion cube. I was madly in love with him. Yet i had to toss him into the flames =(
        • smackafiyah, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1I cry every time I had to turn on that incinerator :(
    • darkNiGHTS, on 01/18/2008, -0/+8Except the GameCube had some top quality games. Not very many games overall, but it had a lot of phenomenal titles.
  • bsdboy, on 01/18/2008, -1/+12No wonder the economy is tanking. Put down the farking DS and get back to work! :-)
    • logicalnoise, on 01/18/2008, -4/+1I was going to buy one but nintendo sucks at keeping supply up. so I bought an elliptical machine instead. YAY exercise!
    • TheMarenum, on 01/18/2008, -1/+9Never.
      • endlessoul, on 01/18/2008, -0/+3Says the user with a Mario powerup as his icon.
        • Poggins, on 01/19/2008, -0/+0TANUKI FTW!

          I just LOVED using that in Super Mario Bros 3.
    • digggggggggg, on 01/18/2008, -0/+2I thought it was because it was the new Extra Long Lasting Stride Gum was lasting too long. So please guys, start chewing that second piece... please???
    • smackafiyah, on 01/19/2008, -0/+5NEVER! *plays Phoenix Wright while his file server crashes*
  • mweels, on 01/18/2008, -3/+8Simple & Fun > Technology
  • TheMarenum, on 01/18/2008, -0/+11After all those days in middle school arguing about N64 and Playstation, this feels really good to an old nintendo fan. Long live Miyamoto.
  • inkswamp, on 01/18/2008, -3/+10"The PlayStation 3, however, only sold 797,600 units..."

    Ouch! Game over.
  • RomanThommassen, on 01/18/2008, -6/+0It sais so much people but guitar hero for ps2 so much. People buy consoles, they don;t care abouth games.
  • petebert, on 01/18/2008, -13/+4So why is this front page, does it make you feel better about buying a Wii because a few million others did too?
    • tendonut, on 01/18/2008, -0/+6The same could be said about people who bought a PS3. Does this make front page because you feel better about being one of the few people who bought a PS3? And that system took a few price drops before any decent games even came out. Nintendo is still standing strong at their pricepoint.
    • accessviolation, on 01/19/2008, -0/+6Because it's the year-end sales numbers of every major platform. It just so happens that the DS and Wii are on top. Don't be so *****-sore over it.
    • Smwbigboss, on 01/19/2008, -0/+31) It was submitted by mrbabyman
      2) It's about the industry as a whole, not just Nintendo
  • hughesj919, on 01/18/2008, -4/+4Wii play shouldn't count as a game...thats like counting Wii sports or something...its bundled with hardware.
    • digggggggggg, on 01/18/2008, -0/+1I would tend to agree. The only game worth playing on Wii Play is that tank game. Even with groups of people all the rest of them get kinda monotonous after a few hours.
  • xlar54, on 01/18/2008, -0/+8Wow. Just imagine if they could actually have kept up with the demand for Wiis!
    • battletrax, on 01/18/2008, -3/+1Nintendo is definitely the comeback kid. All my friends go silent when i mention them.
  • Vash3001, on 01/18/2008, -6/+7PS3 is still terrible......most of its good games can be beaten in a few hours. The only game worth owning on the thing is Folklore.
  • digggggggggg, on 01/18/2008, -5/+6I got a ps3 a few months ago, and frankly I just don't get why people think it's so terrible. The games are getting better, and it's already a great media center. You can plug in a hard disk or burn DVD's with your Divx videos and stuff and it plays them without a hitch; modding not required. Free online play is also a major plus.

    Personally I think all this is a pretty good deal for $400.
    • accessviolation, on 01/19/2008, -2/+5People are pissed because when it was initially released it was a $600 paper weight.
      • daborg, on 01/20/2008, -0/+2That was over a year ago. Welcome to 2008.
  • xero7, on 01/18/2008, -1/+3I have a PS3 and a DS. I'm balanced. :-)
  • benburned, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3Wait.. So is it saying that more copies of halo 3 were sold than xbox360s? I'm confused...
    • stubadub, on 01/19/2008, -0/+6During the year 2007, yes that is exactly what it says.

      Try adding the 2006 and 2005 sales figures for the 360 and you might be less confused.
  • HMTKSteve, on 01/19/2008, -9/+2I am tempted to mark this article as inaccurate because NPD group only tracks sales in the Americas.

    The article says only about 6 million Wiis were sold in 2007? The Wii is on track to hit 20 million by the end of January, are we to believe that 13 million were sold in 2006 just after the launch???

    NPD data is just as worthless as VGChartz not because of accuracy but because of all of the markets that they do not count. America is not the only country on the map.
    • Smwbigboss, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2...this was reporting American sales only.
  • ThankTheCheese, on 01/19/2008, -0/+6I'm not sure what's worse -- the fact that Twilight Princess isn't in the top 10 bestselling games of 2007, or the fact that Mario Party 8 is!
  • ahughes, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3Interesting to see the SM Galaxy more than half the sales in half the time as that of Halo 3.
  • Saiing, on 01/19/2008, -0/+4I was surprised The Orange Box was nowhere to be seen. Especially since it was a console and PC release.
    • Varz, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3Me too.
      To me The Orange Box was definitely GOTY.
  • leebo, on 01/19/2008, -0/+5And yet the RIAA swears that the reason CD sales are slumping is due to pirating and filesharing.

    Could it POSSIBLY be that people are buying more video games?
  • daridave, on 01/19/2008, -0/+1"If we can simplify the numbers to a single trend, we arrive at the fact that the gaming industry is very healthy—and growing. "

    Thank you, Nintendo, for making that happen. Thank you Microsoft, for trying so hard to give us what we want. Thank you SONY, I suppose, releasing more firmware updates than games, for denying us of the past (force feedback), then giving it back to us (dual shock 3), then taking it away again (no more backward compatibility in the future), messing up your business relations with other companies so that they re-opened their eyes and noticed there's some people out there who still do buy other systems... and that is, to play games, not watch movies. Seriously, that's how I see 2007, and to quote the loser of the year, "welcome chang3". OK now, enough negativity, back to configuring this new PSP...
  • Bozmanbeyond, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2The bad and the ugly is when you own all three. I just got a PS3 and now I'm finding it hard to buy games for it because its so dumb to buy the same games that I can get for the 360 or already have for the 360 so my choices are slim to none and to be honest Id rather have the achievements over some dumb skill points that no one can see that I got. I just wish the PS3 would stop stalling its exclusives and promises and get rolling. The PS3 is a wonderful machine but its sad when your favorite game is Superman II or I should say movie. As for my Wii I have only 5 games for it because I'm not 12 anymore none of the games appeal to me and I though Nintendo was not trying to target kids anymore so much for that.
    As for numbers the Wii would have done a hell of a lot more if they would have met the demand but they couldn't. Same can be said for the DS. If they had they would bury the competition even more. I hate to say it but it looks like Nintendo Is King again and M$ will have to play second fiddle as for the Sony its not good when you still rely on you last system and PSP to stay in it. They need to stop making games for the PS2 and drop the price for the PS3 at least $50 to make a impact on the US market.
  • mikeyeah, on 01/19/2008, -1/+1Despite these record breaking sales records, I can't help but feel let down by Nintendo. I wish the Big "N" would remember that they need to make games for us hardcore gamers, not just for the masses. The only Wii games I own are Zelda:TP, Metroid Prime: Corruption, and Galaxy.
    • Smwbigboss, on 01/19/2008, -0/+3Get Medal of Honor Heroes 2, Zack and Wiki (I know it looks kiddy, just trust me on this one), Battalion Wars 2, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles.

      In a few days, No More Heroes comes out, which is supposed to be really good.
      http://wii.ign.com/objects/827/827358.html
      It should hold you off until Brawl comes out in March.
      • mikeyeah, on 01/19/2008, -0/+2I do have Umbrella Chronicles and I do like that too. I'll have to try the other games you suggested out.
  • nobelief, on 01/20/2008, -0/+1Wii needs more GOOD games :-(

    I'm sick of half-assed party games
  •  

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