Mario gave Nintendo’s home console a bit of life last quarter.
The publisher confirmed that it sold 1.19 million Wii U units during the first six months of its fiscal year, which runs through the end of September. The 3DS also racked up 2.28 million units sold. In July, Nintendo noted that it sold 470,000 Wii U systems and 1.01 million 3DSes during its Q1. That means the company sold 720,000 Wii U consoles and 1.27 million 3DSes during its fiscal Q2.
Nintendo credits the release of Super Mario Maker, a game that empowers players to build their own Mario-style stages, with giving the Wii U a bit of an extra life.
“Super Mario Maker … marked 1.88 million units in sales and got off to a good start,” reads the company’s financial report. “Splatoon, which was released in May, marked 2.42 million units in sales and contributed to vitalizing the Wii U platform.”
Wii U hardware sales are now at a worldwide total of 10.73 million.
For 3DS, Nintendo pointed to the Japanese releases of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, Rhythm Tengoku (Rhythm Heaven), and Fire Emblem Fates. That system has now reached 54.34 million units sold.
Nintendo is now in a period of transition, and it’s easy to see why when you look back to the predecessors for each of its primary platforms. While we are reaching the three-year point for Wii U, many people are starting to look ahead to the NX hardware to replace it. That’s because, throughout its lifetime, the original Wii sold 101.59 million units. Wii U is at barely 10 percent of that.
Wii U software isn’t making up that gap either with only 69.05 million copies sold compared to 911.03 million for Wii. Again, this is a comparison for a three-year old system to the Wii, which had a full cycle to rack up these numbers. But the Wii was still difficult to find in stores because it was in such high demand three years into its life, and that’s not at all the case for the Wii U.
3DS doesn’t look much better. While 54 million handhelds sold is impressive in the era of the iPhone, the original DS surpassed 154.01 million systems sold and 947.52 million pieces of software.