179,000 Wii U Games Sold This Year In The UK

As we await total hardware sales from this year’s 2nd quarter for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U, things are not looking all too well for Nintendo on the software front. The numbers reported by Gamasutra suggest that the Wii U sold only 179,000 games this year in the United Kingdom.

There’s no way of sugar coating this news: it’s straight up awful, especially in comparison to the other consoles and handhelds sold this year in the UK.

Courtesy of Gamasutra

The Wii U is the only 8th generation console out right now, yet it has only broken 40k games sold in one month so far this year. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 and PS3’s software sales have averaged at least ten times that number every month. It’s even lagging behind the Nintendo DS, a handheld that came out nine years ago and is a generation behind the Nintendo 3DS. The PS Vita is also doing poorly in the region, barely beating out the Wii U despite a nine month advantage in release date and more titles, but that’s been established for a long time.

Due to the sheer number of titles available on all the platforms, it’s understandable to see the Wii U behind in total games sold. You should realize, however, that it also reflects the amount of consoles sold in the UK as well. Even if you were to guess that the average Wii U owner only owns two games (a conservative guess), it suggests that the Wii U sold fewer than 100,000 consoles over the first half of 2013.

We’ll have to wait and see the official data from Nintendo, but these numbers do not bode well for the Wii U, a console in dire need of a comeback. With a great number of exciting titles launching for the Wii U starting in August, maybe now is the time for a price cut?