Wii Shatters Sales Record in UK

The Nintendo Wii is crushing its competitors in almost every territory where the console is currently on sale, and the latest UK estimates confirm this truth once again.
According to Chart Track, a UK-based research firm, Wii is now the holder of the record for the fastest selling home console in the British territory, with more than 1 million units sold in less than a year since its inception on the market.
More precisely, the Wii sold 1 million units in 38 weeks, compared to Sony’s PlayStation 2, which hit that landmark in 50 weeks, and Xbox 360, in 60 weeks. Nintendo DS, the Japanese gaming behemoth’s most successful product ever, reached 1 million units sold in UK in January 2006, which was also a record-breaking launch, considering that the worldwide debut of the handheld took place in March 2005. Approximately 13 million Nintendo DS were in the hands of people all around the world by the end of December 2005, leaving any competition standing. 2 million units were sold in UK by the end of November 2006, the portable console’s popularity being boosted by titles like Brain Training, Animal Crossing and New Super Mario Bros.
"The non-stop demand for Wii even in the traditionally slow sales periods for videogames in the UK is clearly behind this record-breaking achievement," said Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton.
"The performance of both systems appears to indicate that unprecedented interactive entertainment experiences, provided by a combination of the revolutionary nature of DS and Wii with the increasing number of unique software titles for the system from Nintendo and third parties, are being enjoyed by both avid and new gamers of all ages."
Home ground rival Sony managed to sell 1 million PS3 units in Europe earlier this month, with David Reeves, Sony UK manager saying that “we did that in nine and a half weeks. That was faster than both PS2 and PSOne. And I think that the analysts out there will also realise that it's faster than our brothers and sisters in the competitive world." But keep in mind that these numbers apply for the entire European territory (not just UK) and that the PS3 was launched there on March 23, 6 months later than the Wii.
In Japan, the same 1 million landmark was reached by Sony in July, by the time when Nintendo Wii had been already bought by more than 3 million people.