Wii outsells PS3 4-to-1 in Japan

Nintendo just cannot stop selling Wiis

Wii has been outselling PlayStation 3 nearly 4-to-1 in Japan throughout February, according to the latest figures from Japan’s weekly gaming bible, Famitsu.

Nintendo sold 331,627 Wiis in the four weeks to 24 February, compared with a meagre 89,131 PS3s sold by Sony in Japan over the same time period.

The phenomenal Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii was the best-selling game for Wii in February, with 1.33 million units sold to date. It was followed by Wii Fit, which sold 309,311 units in the four week period across Japan.

Microsoft continues to struggle way behind in third place in Japan selling only 14,079 Xbox 360s over the same four week period.

Is this sustainable?

TechRadar spoke to Chandra Nair, editor of Official Nintendo Magazine, this morning to gauge his reaction to the news. Nair told us:

“What with the newly released and content-rich Super Smash Bros. Brawl catering for the gamers, and the innovative Wii Fit catering for the 'non-gamer', it's really no surprise that the Wii has managed such colossal sales in Japan recently.

"These two releases have, naturally, cause a spike in sales but even in the weeks leading up to the launch of these games the Wii was comfortably outselling the PS3 by a ratio of 3:1.

“Nintendo's new strategy sees games and hardware maintaining a smooth level of sales throughout the year – the days of seasonal drought are over and I don't imagine the Wii will slow down at all over the coming months,” Nair added.

Adam Hartley