The Top 10 Best-Selling Games For Wii U, 3DS, Wii And Nintendo DS (As Of March 2019)

Including wii sports is kinda like cheating

I've ever even heard of Wii Party. God, those were dark days to be a Nintendo fan...

My favourite Wii U games didn't even crack the top 10 (DKC Tropical Freeze and Pikmin 3)

Crazy how Sun and Moon has nearly overtaken X and Y in sales considering how late it came out in the 3DS's life. The GO craze definitely assisted in that for sure

The biggest thing that stands out here is the sheer drop off of software numbers from Wii/DS era to Wii U/3DS era.

Nintendo has to keep Switch at 2017 numbers or they'll be right back to a Wii U + 3DS era again.

@Morpheel Yup exactly the same as Tetris on the Gameboy was the best selling game, because it came with it

@Incognito_D Wii Party and Wii Party U were basically Mario Party when Mario Party games were awful. Despite the generic sounding name, they were probably the best party games on either system (except for Nintendoland).

Wii Play on the other hand... I think people only got that because it basically came free with a Wiimote Plus thanks to being bundled with it for like, 10$ more than the controller alone.

can't believe no zelda games on the 3ds list. i thought ocarina of time 3d, majoras mask 3d, and even a link between worlds were more popular.

@Bunkerneath well, at least Tetris was still its own separate product.

With Wii Sports you really had no choice.

I know the Wii u wasn’t a great seller but the attach rates must be pretty good as a percentage compared to other consoles I mean nearly everyone who had a Wii u bought mk8

Wow, the sales for Wii games was just crazy. I forgot how ridiculously successful that was.

@hihelloitsme You do realise they had to make two games and not one for Wii U/3DS compared to Switch by itself. Also, the 3DS is still being sold actively right now, so this would make it the Switch/3DS era.

3DS was released 2011 and Wii U in 2012, so 8 and 7 years ago respectively. The Switch was released in 2017.

Taking Mario Kart as an example:
16.69 million (Switch) - 2 years
26.7 million (Wii U + 3DS) - 8 years

4 * 16.69 = 66.76 million (in 8 years)

So no, they don't have to keep selling like this to beat the Wii U/3DS era. If they kept selling like this, software numbers for a game like Mario Kart would even beat Wii + DS combined (60.8 million), even though those are much older (than the 8 years I used in the calculation) and were obviously a big hit with 'casuals'.

That's impressive that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has almost double the sales of the same game on Wii U!

Hm....
Kinda tough, but...
My Top 10 NDS, 3DS, Wii games so far.

NDS
1. Final Fantasy III
2. Cooking Mama 2 Dinner with Friends
3. Final Fantasy IV
4. Kurikin : Nano Island Story
5. Super Princess Peach
6. Cooking Mama 3
7. Crafting Mama
8. Animal Boxing
9. My Sims Agent
10. My Sims Party

3DS
1. Animal Crossing New Leaf
2. Tomodachi Life
3. Miitopia
4. Fantasy Life
5. LEGO CITY Undercover: The Chase Begins
6. Mario Kart 7
7. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
8. Paper Mario Sticker Star
9. Dillon's Dead Heat Breakers
10. Pokemon X

Wii
1. Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility
2. Dance Dance Revolution II
3. Wii Party
4. My Sims
5. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Mystery Dungeon
6. Gold Gym Cardio Workout
7. Super Mario Galaxy
8. Pokepark 2: Wonders Beyond
9. Go Vacation
10. The Dog Island

@Incognito_D
Hey! Wii party was great game! So many good damily memories right there.

@Anti-Matter
Poképark fans rise up 👏👏👏

Why do I have a feeling people really like Mario Kart.

It’s crazy not seeing pikmin 3

Glad to see that Splatoon did as well as I thought on on the Wii U. For some reason, all of the 'Wii' series titles on Wii surprised me. I'm surprised that Sun and Moon is almost caught up to X and Y, with how much older those titles were, and also surprised to see Tomodachii Life on the list (it has me hoping for more games like it or Miitopia). Lastly, the DS seemed to have the most variety, with Nintendogs, Brain Training, and Animal Crossing shaking up the list. Makes me wonder if we'll get Switch versions of the Brain Training, Big Brain Academy, or even Nintendog-the latter was really popular, and playing with the animals using the Joy-Cons motion controls sounds like fun.

@Incognito_D Tons of great Wii games.

@Bunkerneath @Morpheel only initially. It didn't come with bundles that had other games and later editions of the console.

@Morpheel if you wanted a Gameboy, you got a Tetris in the box... Like it or not... There was really no choice

@Morpheel It's literally not. Nearly every Nintendo console comes with a game packed in. 3DS's came with Mario Kart 7, or there were bundles with Mario Maker, or the Wii U had bundles with Mario Kart 8 , or, New Super Mario Bros U + New Super Luigi U, or some came with Nintendo Land. Even the Wii had consoles that came with Mario Kart, or there is another one that came bundled with New Super Mario Bros. If you're not going to bother counting those games as cheating as well, I don't see how you can single out Wii Sports. Many people bought the system just to play that game, and the same could be said of many of the other bundles.

@MysticGengar I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for a new pokepark game

@Morpheel But in all reality, Wii Sports was THE reason most people bought a Wii. The fact that the sales of Wii Sports Resort (a game sold separately and that required an additional dongle purchase) are so high is testament to that.

@link3710 Wii Play came with an original Wii Remote, it was a launch title so pretty much would've been the 2nd or 3rd game people purchased just to get the extra controller. It's not hard to see why it's in the top sellers. It was actually a pretty cool showcase for the controller, much like 1-2 Switch...which really should've been bundled with something to sell it.

Wii Play: Motion was the MotionPlus equivalent you are thinking about.

@Baker1000 Well thanks! I never actually played that one, I just remembered almost buying one to get another Motion Plus controller, only for my Wii itself to break so I dropped the idea.

@JEM I mean, it was competing with a much more attractive new system and the same exact game for it.

0 third party game. That sounds like a problem... maybe it will change for the switch ?

Should Wii Sports be counted since it literally was just bundled with Wiis?

@JEM
Whoopsy ! Thanx for pointing it out for me !

Also note that Mario Kart Wii sold 100k last fiscal year. Most publishers would kill for those types of legs 2-3 years later, let alone 11.

@YANDMAN yes there was tons of great wii games but there was some bad ones also and in that era I also struggled to stick with Nintendo I just found the wii mote awful only game I’ve really enjoyed using it was metroid trilogy all the rest I just wanted a real controller especially after playing and loving The GameCube console and controller it was a difficult time for me also. I mean skyward sword was the first zelda game I had to force myself to play,I did enjoy it in the end but that motion control system was hard work. started playing pc more then came back for the wiiu and now switch

Wow Mario Kart and Super Smash sell like a beast!

@Monkeido "You do realise they had to make two games and not one for Wii U/3DS compared to Switch by itself."

So that actually speaks to my point. All their eggs are in one basket now (3DS isn't a real player for them any more). They have to essentially hit home runs on everything. Now, the good news is that they currently are. This momentum must be sustained.

Honestly the wii was more fun for gamecube games

Easy to see now from these figures why the Wii was such a one off blip in its level of popularity. Most of Nintendo's usual evergreen blockbusters are well behind the Wii specific stuff. In other words all the brand loyalty was linked to that console, rather than Nintendo itself.

I hope they make a Nintendo Land 2. That game was really fun.

Looking at the numbers for the Wii and DS, reminded me of just how big a phenomenon both systems were.

@dok5555555 Just yesterday, I was thinking "They should make a new Wii Play." I loved those collections of motion control based short games that feel more like an arcade experience rather than some variation of Mario Party mini game genre. Unfortunately, the new console doesn't really have anything that fills that niche. "1-2-Switch, put your dunce cap back on and get in the corner... You don't count!" But since Wii Play and Nintendoland were made specifically to show off the functionality of their respective systems controllers, I don't see Nintendo making something that that because the Switch really doesn't bring any "new ways to play" like the two previous consoles did.