Thanks to a killer lineup and holiday anticipation, Nintendo saw huge bumps in Wii U sales in December of 2014. The console maker has publically struggled to make significant strides in Wii U ownership, but this season brought a 29% increase in total hardware sales and 75% in software over number from 2013. The rampant success of Super Smash Brothers WiiU and the amiibo platform made easy work of putting Wii U on Holiday Must Have lists.
Not to be counted out, the Nintendo 3DS also brought its most successful month in first party title sales to the table. A large portion of sales were thanks to the popular Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS, which has toppled 2 million units since its October launch. There was also support from Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, which added 2.6 million unit sales to the family.
2015 doesn’t show any signs of Nintendo slouch with strong additions to the 3DS family such as Monster Hunter 4, Codename: S.T.E.A.M. and Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, not to mention an entirely new hardware model launching the same day. Wii U, not to be left behind, boasts Kirby and the Rainbow Curse in February with Mario Party 10 in March. Splatoon and Yoshi’s Wooly World are on the schedule for later this year, with hints to other Nintendo familiar franchises, keeping the first party stable strong.
Some other notable sales milestones for Nintendo in 2014:
Wii U:
- Mario Kart 8 andSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U sold over 1.7 million physical and digital units and 1.3 million physical and digital units,respectively, in 2014.
- Total sales of amiibo figures in 2014 are nearly twice the sales of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
Nintendo 3DS:
- In 2014, 16 Nintendo 3DS titles sold at least 250,000 units. Of those titles, eight sold more than 500,000 units and three sold over 1 million units.
- In 2014, the top 15 best-selling hand-held titles were all released on the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
