Wii U Sales Show Promising Growth Courtesy of Splatoon and Super Mario Maker Success

Funny how Super Mario Maker is doing better than 3D world even though its just an editing tool.

I still think Splatoon will be the second best selling Wii U game behind MK8.

To late...

It's too little too late. Which is sad. Only 3 of my friends have ps4/X1s right now. But 7 of us are playing Mario marker, x, and splatoon nightly. I know nintendos kiddie, but being married with kids like most of us, we still play nintemdo while our kids use the ps.

Doesn't that hardware chart show sales are down from last year? The dotted lines (2014) are above the solid line (this year) December numbers were definitely lower in NA and Japan compared to last year.

They'll have a job to hit the targets too with monthly baselines of 60k in NA and 50k in Japan.

@Peach64 Yup. A bit non-sensical... either the charts or the article at fault.

I'm afraid that the success of Splatoon might inspire Nintendo to release more unfinished games, disc-locked content or games with barebone modes... just so they can drip feed people updates.

@Peach64 The charts show US and Europe, not US and Japan. There is another chart showing Japan, which for some reason isn't included in the article, where it's up when compared to 2014. Japan is up enough to offset the decline in Europe and the US, so that Wii U sales are actually higher than last year.
You can find the Japanese chart in the source.

Splatoon is an awesome game. I played it religiously for the first 6 months. It's midterm season for me so I can't play much these days but I really loved that game. It's my favourite Wii U game behind MK8 and Hyrule Warriors. I hope there is a new version released for NX in the future.

I think I said way back last year that the wii u had not finished yet and looking across all platforms it's not done as bad as the media suggests I mean ps4 had all the advertising in the world and stands at around 36 million which is far behind what any of the last generations of consoles sold, wii u after a very dodgy launch has had more updates than Mario maker has courses but in the end has turned out to be a very versatile stable console with an impressive line up of games, those who don't like Nintendo just won't like it though because I reckon the wii u is more Nintendo than Nintendo.

690,000 players in a regional Splatfest is insane.

@Moon I'm hoping Nintendo will have learned from Splatoon. As a day one purchase for me I seriously considered trading the game in because of the limited maps and game modes available. Am glad I kept the game though.

So, if this is the wiius peak year. Then, I imagine they'll want to ride it for, at least, another holiday season, especially if they make a push with Zelda (almost always a November release). Then, the wiiu successor is likely a fall 2017 thing. Everyone keeps saying its this year. I think, there going to try a 'third pillar', like with DS during the slow years for the GameCube and release a new handheld.

I said it in different thread, and I will say it again; is the Wii U closing in on roughly 13 million units sold worldwide really as bad as what everyone makes it out to be, considering the fact that Nintendo have pretty much done it all on their own with their own IP's, no huge advertising campaigns, and little to no third party support?!

@GuruOfGreatness
I agree. Even though it is nothing for them to brag about, they've done a pretty good job with VERY LITTLE third-party support outside of indies. There are many really awesome games for it. I know several teens and adults that only own a PS or Xbox for playing games like Madden or Call of Duty, and the fact that it plays blu-ray. That's very likely several million less systems sold if you take those away, or if they were available for Wii-U also.

It has definitely been more than worth the investment for me.

@Donutman That's a widespread misconception; Nintendo is not for kids, Nintendo is for everyone (just like many other franchises in the world). Just because it doesn't exclude kids, doesn't mean that it's specifically for kids. It's suited for ages of 3-99, like card games, board games, comics, cartoons (there are even comics and cartoons that are not suited for kids), disney movies etc.
I don't understand how people can constantly mix that up. If it was for kids, adults wouldn't play their games.

It's like saying chocolate is for children, although most adults also love to eat chocolate.

Also, why would it be too late? The only thing that matters is the end result. 10-20 years later no one will ask how many units a console has shipped in its first years, they only care about the absolute lifetime sales numbers.

That said, I'm happy to hear that my favourite game could become the #1 seller of the console. Splatoon has earned it, it's the freshest game on all system in 2015.

@rdrunner1178

And me too, from day one to now

I also own a PS4 and Xbox One, and enjoy them all, as I consider myself a fan as opposed to a fanboy. My Wii U has always been my favourite, go to console, followed by Xbox One and then the PS4 in last place with the least amount of playtime as it has the least amount of exclusives that interest me. Difference between the Wii U and the other two though; regardless of how much I enjoy the Xbox One and PS4, and regardless of how much play time they get over the next few years, I will undoubtedly trade them in/sell then at some point; the Wii U on the other hand is there to stay

@rdrunner1178

And me too, from day one to now

I also own a PS4 and Xbox One, and enjoy them all, as I consider myself a fan as opposed to a fanboy. My Wii U has always been my favourite, go to console, followed by Xbox One and then the PS4 in last place with the least amount of playtime as it has the least amount of exclusives that interest me. Difference between the Wii U and the other two though; regardless of how much I enjoy the Xbox One and PS4, and regardless of how much play time they get over the next few years, I will undoubtedly trade them in/sell then at some point; the Wii U on the other hand is there to stay

@Splatburst
In my opinion, Splatoon will get the first position.
I think the new Zelda can surpass MK8 too.

Having shifted 100m+ home consoles last gen I find it hard to see anything promising about shifting a pathetic 13m this time around. Hell, even if it made 20m that's still sad. You are only as good as your last battle.
I suppose like many other terms these days "promising" can be subjective.

I am just saying what I think, not starting an argument.

Yes, I credit them as I think they did "OK" considering the situation they are in, but ultimately they are the ones responsible for being there in the first place.

I bought Splatoon a few weeks back and it is an excellent and varied shooter. I didn't think I would like it, but my little half-brother, who's 12 (I'm 39) brought it over to play and I fell in love with the game. And I am a very big FPS, currently also playing Star Wars Battlefront on the Xbone, so it shows the game's appeal is far and wide, young and old (or older!). I now own the game and the Amiibos!

I bought Mariomaker on day 1, actually took a day off to get it and I love that game...that will be a game I plan on playing forever. I just want them to add DLC and SMB2.

The Wii U may have limited appeal to some, but for those of us who know games and have been gaming for a long time (I started with an Atari 2600 in the early 1980s), it is a great piece of equipment. I play it as much, perhaps more, than the Xbone, which I also enjoy greatly. I enjoy it more than the Wii, perhaps not quite as much as the Cube, but its definitely gets better with age, much like a fine wine.

We finally bought a Wii U for Christmas, and to be honest I surprised myself because I had come to the point where I thought the console was one to skip. Our son had asked for PS4 but our budget simply wouldn't stretch that far. We got a basic Wii U in a sale at less than half the price of a PS4. I wasn't expecting to be massively impressed with the console but it has exceeded expectations. The Gamepad is much more user-friendly and much lighter than expected (I am sure countless people have remarked the same thing), the console runs smoothly and nowhere near as sluggishly as one review led me to believe; even better, the handful of games we have bought so far have all been excellent and from what I can tell the lack of third-party support has one obvious advantage: it means the Wii U will have a higher proportion of good quality software because we won't see the same levels of shameless cash grabs pretending to be software. The latter problem really marred the Wii for me - far too many lazy conversions or cobbled-together family games with remote waggle controls tacked on. I suppose we might have seen the same thing on the Wii U had the gamepad caught on like Nintendo wanted it to (endless Nintendo Land-like party games would have ensued and I think arguably Nintendo Land itself set a bad example of how the Gamepad might be used lazily, at least in a couple of the games).

Not that the drying up of third-party software isn't sad. It looks like a great console and I think developers who did produce games for it should not have concentrated on sequels to games available on other consoles. Still, my son is really happy with what he has played so far and he hasn't really complained. Unfortunately once he's played through the existing third-party software he's going to start feeling jealous of his friends with their Playstations and X-Boxes, and I think I'm the one in the family who recognises the superiority of Nintendo's own games (perhaps you have to be either very young or else grown-up enough not to find them childish, if that makes sense).

My only other real grumble is the poor implementation of Miiverse and the near impossibility of searching for friends in minority languages. But other than that - I love the console and I can only wish that a late growth in sales might lead to increasing support, even this late in the day.

@ducktrapper
Glad to hear you're family is enjoying it. I got the Wii U as a gift, as I also thought it would suck, but I too was very surprised. Don't forget the eshop, it has a ton of great games & DLC as well. With all the great 1st party games out, the console should last you a while. Enjoy!

@Donutman Nintendo is for everyone there are games like fatal frame and bayonneta on there for mature gamers. Beside a lot of the best games are child friendly anyway.

@GuruOfGreatness who says it will finish on 13 million think you need to wait a while longer and see what happens

I love the wii u even more than my xbox one and more than i loved 360 last gen. I think the only console i like more than wii u is Dreamcast

@JTTHEGAME

I never once in that statement said it was ending on 13 million. Please read what I said properly. Not that I care about numbers or sales, I care about games, but yet I still sincerely hope it reaches GameCube numbers or more, though it is looking unlikely.

@ducktrapper i have xbox one and well as the wii u and you are right the wii u is the best of the current consoles and a fraction of the price