Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.
The Irish are shedding the Guinness pounds, the Germans are working off those brätwurst, and Sweden ... well, we don't really have a lazy, go-to food stereotype for the Swedes. Anyhow, the point is: they're all loving it, and if Wii Fit doesn't appear in a chart (see: Spain, Denmark), it's probably because a country hasn't got it yet, or the charts have fallen behind.
Mind you, don't expect any of this Nintendo dominance to last: next week's charts are guaranteed to be all about one game (yet we suspect Wii Fit might give you have better legs than GTA IV in the long-term). Lean past the break for this week's European charts.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
While yours truly had trouble tracking down a copy of Mario Kart Wii on the high street (for our review), it appears plenty of others around Europe had no such problem.
Bar Denmark (where it has now dropped to fifth), the title sits at the top of every European chart, and we suspect it might even be influencing the sales of other games. Surely the rise of Mario Kart DS to 8th in Ireland, 8th in France, and 7th in Germany can't all be a mere coincidence? By our reckoning, Mario Kart Wii has ramped up Europe's interest in Mario Kartgenerally. Fortunately, Mario Kart DS is the bee's knees!
Finally, this week's overachiever award goes to Sega Superstars Tennis -- despite the Wii version's lack of online play, Sega's tennis/blue skies extravaganza climbed to fourth in the UK. Head beyond the break for more European chartage, and please accept our humble apologies for the lack of a Spanish top ten -- that should be back next week.
Out of nowhere, Amazon has kicked off another day devoted to Wii bargains! Similar to February's series of Gold Box deals, the online retailer has put up a bargain for the day -- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for $29.99.
Four additional "Lightning Deals" will also be posted at 6:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 6:00 PM PST, each sale limited to its four-hour block. Most of these games sell out within minutes, though, so you'll want to start refreshing the Gold Box page around those times.
Amazon has put up clues for the mystery Lightning Deals; we've accompanied them with our guesses!
6:00 AM: "The hunt is on for big game." - Cabela's Big Game Hunter
10:00 AM: "Wii will, Wii will rock you!" - Guitar Hero 3
2:00 PM: "Muster your squad to fight the terrorist threat." - Ghost Squad
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
Unlike reigning full beard freestyle world champion Elmar Weisser of Germany (who we admire fiercely), we have mixed feelings about this week's European sales charts.
For example, while we're heartened by the success of debutant Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (5th in the UK, and the Wii edition supplemented sales of other versions across Europe -- not bad for a game that appeared on every other console last October), we're irked by the flat performance of House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return (15th in Britain, and nowhere to be seen in the charts of mainland Europe).
Europe, if you're reading, stop buying Game Party (7th in UK), Smarty Pants (10th in Spain), and Mario & bleeding Sonic (high everywhere) and let's get something half-decent up there for a change. Sega Bass Fishing should make next week's chart, so that'd be a good place to start -- let's have that top ten somewhere, please.Sigh. At least Elmar will never fail to impress us. Click on for the charts.
Ah, how we all knowingly chuckled when Sega predicted it would sell four million copies of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games across the Wii and DS. Like a drunken, rowdy friend boasting of sexual conquests that never actually occurred, Sega's strutting came across as the stuff of fantasy.
We were reminded of our misplaced Mario & Sonic cynicism again today, after That Videogame Blog listed the third-party games that have shifted one million units on the Wii. Sure enough, the plumber and the hedgehog taunted us from the top of the pile (with 3.4 million sales), while Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (1.8 million), Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (1.6 million), Rayman Raving Rabbids, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Carnival Games (all 1.2 million), and Red Steel (1 million) sat beneath it.
Helpfully, author Ashutosh Chhibbar has also listed those titles that are nearing the magical seven-digit landmark, with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, MySims, or LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga just needing one last push.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
UK consumers have looked high. They've looked low. And they've reached their verdict: there isn't a better pair of Wii games than Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and ... Game Party. As a polished, slick, licensed product, we can totally understand (and almost support) Mario & Sonic doing well (it came second to Army of Two), but Game Party? Could this be the same Game Party that averages a whopping 23% on GameRankings, and which achieved a heady top score of 32% from IGN? It is? Way to go, Britain!
Beyond the top ten, Carnival: Funfair Games makes it to 16th place (and there's more where that came from), Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree sit in 31st and 37th spot respectively, and we weep into our keyboards for the future of the country.
Meanwhile, consumers in mainland Europe are also all over the plumber and the hedgehog, with the Wii version of Mario & Sonic registering top ten positions in the Netherlands and Spain, and sharing top spot in Ireland with the DS edition. Wii Play even makes an appearance in the Spanish and German charts, as it rolls cheerfully towards world domination.
Hit the break for a sprinkling of European charts!
Haven't hopped onto the Brawl bandwagon yet? If you're still looking for one more reason to pick up the epic fighter, keep this deal in mind! Starting today until next Sunday, Toys "R" Us will throw in an extra game for half its regular price with every order of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The list of eligible titles isn't 100% quality, but there are a few that you might be interested in:
Bee Movie Game
My Sims
Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Games
Raving Rabbids 2
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Buy two copies!)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl Guide (Prima book)
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (only $14.98!)
As we informed you yesterday (and predicted last week), Super Smash Bros. Brawl ripped up the Japanese sales charts. Selling an incredible 820,000 copies in a mere four days, that's not a game to be messed with.
Some other Nintendo titles didn't fare as well, however. Super Mario Galaxy nearly fell out of the top thirty this week. Brawl, it seems, is starting to cannibalize Galaxy's sales. Wii Fit'sstreak as the number one game also ended with Brawl's success. Not only that, but Wii Fit was pushed to number five by the plethora of new games released last week. Most of the other Wii games got knocked down, too, like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and Mario Party.
Family Ski represented the top third-party Wii game this week, ending up at number twelve. That's not too shabby, especially considering that the game wasrumored to have poor first-day sales.
Oh, and did we mention that the Wii was the top seller in hardware, for the second week in a row? We wonder how long Brawl will be able to keep it at the top.
The full hardware and software numbers are listed after the break, as usual.
Let's face it: the Japanese sales numbers for the week of 1/21 are just foreplay. What we really want to know is how Super Smash Bros. Brawl did, although rumors are coming in that the game sold a whopping 500,000 copies in its first day. All this hype even catapulted the Wii above the DS in hardware sales last week, according to the numbers released by Famitsu. We think the Wii will hold the top spot in Japan for at least another few weeks, while it basks in Brawl's glory.
The Wii may have made a stir in the hardware charts, but all's boring on the software front. Wii Fit shows us its well-toned legs by remaining at the number one spot, and Super Mario Galaxy has fallen out of the top ten once again. Wii Play also slipped a bit, losing some of its former dominance.
To see the Japanese hardware and software figures for last week, look no further than after the break.
We already know that the Wii is doing well in Japan. How has the hardware and software been shaping up against other consoles and games, though? Let's take a look at last week's sales to find out.
The Wii continues to flip-flop positions with the PSP, this time ending up on the more favorable side of the coin. Regaining the second place spot with 76,000 units sold, the Wii only dropped 6,000 units from last week's numbers.
Wii software continues to do well, too -- at least concerning "Wii" and "Mario" games. Wii Fit sales in Japan were even greater than DS handheld sales. Super Mario Galaxy also ended up back in the top ten, in part because of consistent sales, and in part because a few DS games lost steam.
Some other Wii games didn't make the top of the charts, like Trauma Center: New Blood (which sold 3,100 copies last week in its debut).
Check out the actual sales numbers and rankings for hardware and software after the break.
Sales for all systems predictably tumbled last week as Japan's holiday shopping season came to an end. That's not all that dropped, though; the Wii also slipped to third place, while the PSP claimed the second spot. Although the hardware sales reflect Japan's portable-mania, the software sales once again scream Nintendo.
Since we already knew about Wii Fit's million accomplishment, there wasn't much surprise in the software charts. Super Mario Galaxy, however, finally fell out of the top ten as it makes it way toward the million mark.
The Wii got a huge boost in hardware sales thanks to the New Years holiday, which is known to be big for consumerism in Japan. All system sales increased, in fact, but the gap between the Wii and PSP widened as the Wii sold almost 80,000 more units than it did the previous week.
The bump in hardware sales also affected software sales, helping Nintendo regain its domination in the charts. The top twelve games were for Nintendo systems, with a lot of those games either having the words "Wii" or "Mario" in their titles. Wii Sports and Wii Play continue to bully newer titles out of the top ten, while Wii Fit nears the million mark (and according to some trackers, already reached it as of today). Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles also shows some legs by barely making the top thirty, selling 21,000 copies last week for a total of 234,000.
It will be interesting to see whether Super Mario Galaxy can hang in the top ten, but regardless, it seems that the game will hit one million sales relatively soon. Also, expect a huge drop in sales all around next week, as holiday spending in Japan finally comes to an end.
The hardware and software numbers are listed after the break, for your viewing pleasure.
Normally we bring you Japanese sales charts on Wednesday, but since Japan was on vacation this week, that didn't exactly work out. It's back to work for Japan, however, which means that the sales numbers for games and hardware for the week of 12/24 were finally released.
So, how did Nintendo fare? While software sales were good, the company certainly lost its dominance in the charts. The week of 12/17 had Nintendo in nine out of ten of the top spots, while the week of 12/24 had the company in only seven. (Note: When "only seven" is a bad week, that's a good thing.)
To see what this means for the Wii (and to view the actual Famitsu sales numbers), check after the break.
The Wii did well last week in Japan, finally managing to outsell the PlayStation 3 again by five to one. Wii Fit, Super Mario Galaxy, and Mario and Sonic continued to find success in the software sales charts, while Wii Sports and Wii Play extend their quests toward spectacularly high numbers.
We're glad to see that Super Mario Galaxy is doing well (the game is great, in case you haven't noticed), and are still awed by the phenomenon that is Wii Sports. Only one game in the top ten (and top fifteen, for that matter) was for a non-Nintendo system, which exemplifies the company's current dominance in Japan. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon is mysteriously missing from the charts, however, leading some to speculate that the game sold less than FIFA 360 (which took the last place with 2,400 copies sold).
Check after the break to see the sales numbers for Japan's hardware and software.
Starting today until this Saturday, Target will have six of its Wii games for sale for only $37.00! As you can see from the list below, they're not all crap, either!
Most of these titles are already out of stock on Target's online shop, but you should still be able to pick them up at a brick and mortar location. If you've been putting off on buying Super Mario Galaxy to accommodate your Christmas budget, with the holiday now behind us and this great deal, you can make this long overdue purchase without having to feel guilty about it!
Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.
Featuring charts from across the region, 
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
Featuring charts from across the region, Another Week in Europe documents the buying habits and quirky tastes of a whole continent of Wii lovers.
