The Nintendo Wii has overtaken the Xbox 360 to become the biggest selling next-gen games console. Despite launching a year earlier, the Xbox 360 has been under threat for some time, and this week it finally happened.
The figures come from VG Chartz which aggregates sales figures collected from around the world.
Last week, the Wii was on the brink of taking a lead. Latest figures now show the Nintendo console 60,000 sales ahead of Microsoft's. Many expect the Wii to now disappear off into the distance; it's far more popular at the moment than both the Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3.
But today's numbers are only part of the story. Firstly, consider that the much-mooted FPS game ' Bioshock' is released for the 360 this Friday. This is likely to give the Microsoft console a big sales push, so it's not inconceivable that the sales lead could change hands a number of times next week.
Bioshock marks the start of an impressive software line-up for the Xbox 360 this year. Highly anticipated titles include: Halo 3, Mass Effect, FIFA 08, PES 2008, Project Gotham Racing 4, Call of Duty 4, Fable 2 and Assassin's Creed.
Wii is now top of the pile
The Xbox has also recently had its price slashed in North America, Japan, Europe and Australia, and that again points to a bit of a resurgence. What's more, the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite is being released in Europe tomorrow, and Down Under next week, which is another factor to be considered.
But really though, in the near future the Nintendo Wii does not have a serious competitor sales-wise. You can expect its sales to dominate those of the Xbox 360 and PS3 for some time yet.
"Two years ago, very few analysts would have predicted the Nintendo Wii would be market leader this generation against the established PlayStation and Xbox brands," says VG Chartz..
"But analysts can be in error: Vgchartz.com data, which is based on sample data from retailers all over the world indicates that the week ending 23 August, Nintendo's Wii (which was released one year after the Xbox 360 in November 2006), currently standing at 10.57 million consoles sold, passed Xbox 360 lifetime sales of 10.51 million units, making Nintendo the new market leader in both the home and handheld videogame console businesses.
"As weekly data from vgchartz.com shows, the console outsold Microsoft's Xbox 360 by a margin of 2.3:1 worldwide on average each week since its release, selling at an even faster rate than the most successful console ever created, Sony's PlayStation 2, despite still being sold out in most major markets.
"This is the first time that a company has been market leader in the home console and the handheld market since 1994 when Nintendo's Super NES and Gameboy dominated worldwide.
"Vgchartz.com is proud to be first to announce this major sales cross over as an independent tracker of sales and expects this to be a milestone for the current generation. In just two years, home console sales for the three major manufacturers have effectively reversed. This will have a large impact on third party publishers and will undoubtedly influence the decisions they make in the future."
