Wii U Hardware Sales Down 75%, But 3DS Is Up Slightly


Nintendo has released its hardware sales for the last nine months, and although the Wii U struggled, the 3DS improved its sales figures year-on-year.

3DS hardware sales for the nine months ending December 31, 2016 totalled 6.45 million, which Nintendo says is a 10 percent increase compared to the same period in 2015.

Wii U, on the other hand, sold 760,000 units in that time–a 75 percent decrease compared to 2015. Nintendo did say these sales “conformed to our expectations,” however.

On the software front, Nintendo says 46.78 million 3DS games were sold during those nine months. This figure was buoyed by the record-breaking sales of Pokemon Sun and Moon, which together sold 14.69 million. Wii U game sales totalled around 12.48 million, meanwhile.

The last nine months bring total Wii U hardware sales to 13.56 million, just 13 percent of the 102 million units the Wii managed to sell.

There are now a total of 65.3 million 3DS consoles out in the wild, which is just 42 percent of the 154 million lifetime sales the Nintendo DS reached.

These data come from Nintendo’s latest financial report. Nintendo also confirmed that its Animal Crossing game for mobile has been delayed.