Nintendo Wii Outsells PS3, Xbox 360 During January

by Marcus Yam

The Wii off to a great start for 2007

Nintendo’s Wii continues to sell at a torrid place, outselling the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 during January. Market research firm NPD Group reports that consumers bought 436,000 Wii, while Xbox 360 sold 294,000 units, followed by PlayStation 3 with 244,000.

Nintendo is crediting much of its success to the broad appeal of Wii compared to machines from Microsoft and Sony. “I do think that we're selling to additional and different customers,” said Perrin Kaplan, VP marketing for Nintendo. “We've had an incredibly healthy start and we think there's going to be a pretty long tail on this product.”

Each console experienced a drop in sales when compared with figures from December 2006. The Wii saw the least decline when compared to its previous month at 604,200, while Xbox 360 saw the biggest decline from its 1.1 million units sold. PlayStation 3 also fell from its 490,700 sold during December.

The PlayStation 2 continues to be a strong seller, likely because of its price point, with 299,000 units—but down from the amazing 1.4 million during the holiday month. The Nintendo DS also loosened its grip, selling 239,000 during January—a steep drop from the 1.6 million during the gift-giving season. PSP also fell to 211,000 from 953,200.

(c) www.dailytech.com