The Wii’s momentum has certainly lost stride over the past year, and according to analyst Matt Matthews, the Xbox 360 is en route to topping the Wii’s sales within the coming months. Over the course of the last year, the Xbox 360 and Wii sold 6.81 million and 6.92 million units, respectively. While the Wii still managed to outsell its competitor, it saw an overall decrease in sales, and the gap between the consoles’ individual sales closed by a considerable 62,000 units just in January. Matthews estimates that at this rate, the Xbox 360 could possibly surpass the Wii by the end of March.
Despite its massive installed base, the Wii hasn’t been able to sell software at an increasing pace, and estimates show that at this rate, the PlayStation 3 is also likely to surpass the Wii in terms of software sales despite having only about half the installed user base. Considering the bigger picture, the Wii is in more than just danger of losing to the Xbox 360 in terms of sales; Nintendo as a whole could begin to suffer due to profit declines. Last month, the Nintendo DS only managed to sell a total of 291,000 units, a fairly low number given the handheld’s success. This decline can be directly linked to the impending launch of the 3DS, however, and it is possible that the new handheld will increase sales numbers for the company in the near future.
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