Wii to be on par with Gamecube sales
VentureBeat.com put up an article yesterday that shows Wii sales passing PS2 while the PS3 is on par with the GameCube. It seems that Nintendo and Sony have switched places from the last generation.
Based on sales numbers for the first 26 months of availability the Wii is on track to become the best selling video game console of all time. That title currently belongs to the Playstation 2 which has sold over 50 million units in the United States and an estimated 140 million worldwide.
In the first 26 months of availability Nintendo has sold 17.5 million Wiis while Sony sold 15.9 million PS2s within the same period of its life cycle. This means that in two years Nintendo has outsold the PS2s first two years sales by 10%. If this sales pattern holds then by 2014 Nintendo will have sold 55 million Wiis in North America and 154 million worldwide.
During the same intial 26 month period the PS3 has sold 6.79 million units while the GameCube sold 6.75 million. The total lifetime sales of the GameCube only reached 21 million and had Nintendo in last place for that console generation. Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 9.2 million units in that first 26 month period, leaving them in a faraway second place behind Nintendo.
VentureBeat does say that not all is lost for Sony. Despite being in last place the GameCube was still a profitable console for Nintendo and its likely the Sony will eventually make a profit off the PS3. However, despite what Sony executives say, the chances of the PS3 making a comeback are slim, maybe even impossible at this point. Because as they point out, the numbers don't lie.
