Wii wins console war, market watcher claims

Nintendo next-gen sales surpass Microsoft's

Nintendo's Wii is now the world's best-selling next-gen videogames console, having this week nosed past the Xbox 360. The Microsoft console has been available to buy for the best part of a year more than has the Wii.

So claims little-known online gaming sales tracker VG Chartz, which this week said that by its reckoning, as of 23 August 2007, buyers across the globe have purchased 10.57m Wiis to 10.51m Xbox 360s.

VG Chartz bases its figures on over-the-counter sales data from a small selection of retailers around the world. It doesn't say how many retailers it uses, or name them, but it claims its estimates are "very accurate projections of the latest console sell through figures worldwide". As we've noted before, we can't say how accurate its numbers are, but they certainly don't appear beyond the bounds of possibility.

The company believes some 4.32m PS3s have been bought around the world - 17 per cent of the total to the Wii's 41.6 per cent share of next-gen console sales and the Xbox 360's 41 per cent.

Microsoft and Xbox buffs may care to suggest that the two consoles are actually running neck and neck, but VG Chartz said the Wii is outselling the Xbox 360 by 2.3 units to one on a weekly basis, so the Nintendo machine is going to leave the Microsoft one behind very soon indeed.

And that puts Nintendo back on top for the first time since the advent of the PlayStation. Factor in PS2 and PSOne sales, of course, and Sony remains the market leader in games consoles, but Nintendo can take heart from its success in the next-gen segment.