Seventh generation of video games

Video game sales
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Next:	Eighth generation of video games

See also NPD Seventh generation for United States sales figures

Worldwide console sales as of Dec 31, 2008

For home consoles, the seventh generation began on November 22, 2005 with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and continued with the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 11, 2006 and Nintendo's Wii on November 19, 2006. Each new console introduces a new type of breakthrough technology. For example, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 offers high-definition graphics, while the Wii focuses on integrating controllers with movement sensors instead of joysticks and appealing to non-traditional gamers.

In the early days of the next-generation console wars, it was generally assumed that it would be a three-way race between the Xbox, the PS3 and the Wii. But because of the Wii's different strategy, Sony and Microsoft no longer compare their consoles' sales performances to that of Nintendo's.

The rationale seems to be that the Xbox and PS3 are completely different types of machines than the Wii, given the former's reliance on high-quality graphics and superior performance and the latter's focus on more casual games intended to appeal to a broad audience.

Whether that is semantics is a question neither Sony nor Microsoft seem eager to answer. In fact, both frequently make the point that Wii owners often also own either an Xbox or a PS3, if not both.

Hardware sales

Xbox 360 had approximately a 2.7 million unit head start in the US and 6 million worldwide lead by October 2006 just before the release of the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3

Worldwide figures are based on data from the manufacturers. The Canada and the United States figures are based on data from the NPD Group, the Japan figures are based on data from Famitsu/Enterbrain, and the United Kingdom figures are based on data from GfK Chart-Track.

Console	Units shipped to retailers (worldwide) (as of December 31, 2008)	Units sold in Europe	Units sold in Canada (as of August 1, 2008)	Units sold in Japan (as of October 1, 2008)	Units sold in the UK (as of January 2009)	Units sold in the US (as of January 1, 2009)	Units sold in France (as of June 2008)	Units sold in Australia and New Zealand (as of July 2008)	Units sold in Italy(as of Nov 2008)
Wii	44.96 million	14.2 million (January 2009)	1,060,000	6,826,612	4.9 million	17,521,000	1.8 million	456,000	799,500
Xbox 360	28.6 million	7 million (November 2008)	0870,000 870,000	0748,992 748,992	3.2 million	13,857,400	0700,000 700,000	500,000 (January 2009)	623,500
PlayStation 3	21.30 million	5 million (May 2008)	0520,000 520,000	2,369,484	1.9 million	6,790,000	0800,000 800,000	285,000	704,500
Nintendo DS	96.22 million	31 million (January 2009)			8.8 million	27,514,500			2,920,500
PSP		12 million (as of May 2008)			3.2 million	14,359,500			1,475,500

Japan Famitsu hardware sales for seventh generation

	   PS2          NDS          PSP          360          PS3          Wii
2000	 3,748,200	
2001	 3,603,700
2002	 3,652,800
2003	 2,812,500
2004	 2,750,800    1,095,900      339,900
2005	 2,134,900    4,002,900    2,225,800       81,800
2006	 1,547,900    8,862,900    1,946,900      208,700      466,700      989,100
2007	   816,400    7,143,700    3,022,700      257,800    1,206,300    3,629,400
2008	   480,700    4,029,800    3,543,200      317,900      991,300    2,908,300
Total	21,547,900   25,135,200   11,078,500      866,200    2,664,300    7,526,800

Console wars

Software sales

NPD sales figures

Main article: Best selling games (seventh generation)

Video games in the seventh generation took a different turn. With the high popularity of the Wii coupled with its low development cost, developers put out games that focused on reaching other demographics. Cooking games, fitness games like Wii Fit became popular. Party/minigame compilations were produced by many small-time developers with stunning success. Because of the low graphical power of the Wii (and many consumers who did not care much for graphics), the Wii was a target for shovelware games. Many games looked inferior to Gamecube games. Others chose the largely risk-free approach of simply porting PS2/Gamecube games to the Wii as a cheap yet effective cash-in. Much debate centered around whether Wii was a viable platform for core games. Many developers chose not to downport their games to the Wii for this reason and the console war, in regards to gaming, became a battle between Wii vs the HD consoles (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). Though Nintendo found great success on their system, third party games struggled in the marketplace, another reason why some developers stayed away from the Wii.

The increasing developer costs led many to consider releasing their games on multiple platforms. The first surprises were Grand Theft Auto going multi-platform and Square-Enix announcing at E3 2008 that Final Fantasy XIII would release on the Xbox 360 alongside the PS3 in the U.S. Even so, exclusive games were critical factors in gamers minds. First party efforts by Microsoft included a new Halo game, a new successful IP in Gears of War. PS3 saw success in new iterations of Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo and new IPs in Uncharted and LittleBigPlanet.

Rhythm games became very popular with Guitar Hero and later Rock Band achieving record-breaking sales and revenues despite their higher price points. With the increase in online gaming, first person shooters, especially war-based, became very popular. The Call of Duty franchise exploded in popularity and sold comparably to Grand Theft Auto and Halo games.

Best selling games of the seventh generation (worldwide) (as of June 2008)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360 / PS3)	10 million
Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)	4 million
Halo 3 (360)	8.1 million (as of Jan 2008)
Wii Play (Wii)	16.15 million (as of Sept 2008)
Nintendogs (NDS)	20.03 million (as of Sept 2008)
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)	2.55 million (as of Sept 2008)

Best selling games worldwide in 2008 (source)

Platform	Video game	Total sales	US retail	Japan retail	UK retail
Wii	Mario Kart Wii	8.94	5.00	2.00	1.94
Wii	Wii Fit	8.31	4.55	2.15	1.61
PS3/X360	Grand Theft Auto IV	7.29	5.18	0.25	1.85
Wii	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	6.32	4.17	1.75	0.40
PS3/X360	Call of Duty: World at War	5.89	4.46	0	1.43

Best selling games in Japan (as of January 2009)

Best selling Xbox 360 games in Japan through January 2009 (source) Blue Dragon 203,740 Tales of Vesperia 161,070 The Last Remnant 134,611 Infinite Undiscovery 112,444 Lost Odyssey 109,517 Dead or Alive 4 108,618 Viva Pinata (Platinum) 101,552 Forza 2 (Platinum) 100,591 Ace Combat 6 95,002 Halo 3 83,696

Best selling Wii games in Japan through January 2009 (source) Wii Sports - 3,384,590 Wii Fit - 3,069,485 Wii Play - 2,618,189 Mario Kart Wii - 2,096,388 Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 1,747,113 Mario Party 8 - 1,310,766 Animal Crossing: City Folk - 1,016,906 Super Mario Galaxy - 945,106 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - 594,157 WarioWare: Smooth Moves - 568,623 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 552,476

Best selling PS3 games in Japan through January 2009 (source) Metal Gear Solid 4 - 686,254 Hot Shots Golf 5 - 384,882 Shin Sangoku Musou 5 - 356,266 World Soccer Winning Eleven PES 2009 - 335,163 Dynasty Warriors Gundam - 312,674 Devil May Cry 4 - 310,012 White Knight Chronicles - 300,612 Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III - 283,683 World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008 - 275,069 Yakuza: Kenzan! - 270,438

Best selling Nintendo DS games in Japan (source)

(As of April 2009)

1. Pokémon Diamond / Pearl - 5,624,430
2. New Super Mario Bros. - 5,406,786
3. Animal Crossing: Wild World - 4,976,041
4. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day - 4,967,131
5. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day - 3,750,890
6. Mario Kart DS - 3,355,781
7. Pokémon Platinum - 2,361,196
8. English Training: Have Fun Improving Your Skills - 2,051,037
9. Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) - 1,850,984
10. Mario Party DS - 1,832,265

Charts

Worldwide sales for all three consoles (based on financial reports)

Worldwide sales - aligned launch

United States data

Japan sales data. Wii (blue), PS3 (green), X360 (red) (source JJSWiki)

Worldwide quarterly sales (based on financial reports)

Europe weekly hardware sales in 2008

Xbox 360's diminishing lead over the PS3

Console market share in the United States

Console market share in Japan

Storylines

• "First to 10 million wins." [2]
• Many ports from PS2 games to the Wii. Capcom alone ported Resident Evil 4, RE0, Okami, Dead Rising.
• "Red Ring of Death" for the Xbox 360
• Storage problems for the Wii for WiiWare, Virtual Console, and DLC
• Many memes such as "year of the PS3"
• Stock problems for Xbox 360 (half a year) and Wii (two years)

See also

• Top Global Markets Report
• NPD Seventh generation
• 2008 in video games
• 2007 in video games
• NPD Consoles - sales data for the seventh generation
• NPD 2008 in review
• NPD 2007 in review
• Media Create 2007 in review (Japan)
• Sixth generation of video games
• New franchises in the seventh generation

External links

• Seventh Generation Gaming Consoles: Thinking Outside the Box (December 2006)
• Feature: Can PS3 Catch Up to Xbox 360? (January 16, 2009)
• 2009 resolutions for the game industry

Prev: Sixth generation of video games

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Next: Eight generation of video games