Nintendo is continuing to feel the pain of consumers' less-then-lukewarm reaction to the Wii U console and the decline of its handhelds. The iconic Japanese gamesmaker witnessed its hardware sales slump 31 percent last year, pushing it into second place. Combining the sales of Wii, Wii U and the 3DS console, Nintendo topped 16.3 million hardware unit sales last year.
By comparison, Sony sold almost 19 million hardware units when you combine the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita tally. In its first day, Sony's PlayStation 4 sold over a million units. That figure swelled to 2.1 million within the first week of December, and before the end of the year sales had reached 4.2 million, far more than enough to dethrone Nintendo.
This is the first time in eight consecutive years - since 2006 - that Nintendo didn't top the charts. The incredible success of Nintendo's DS handhelds combined with its dominance (in terms of units) with the Wii compared to Xbox 360 and PS3 in the year days of the generation, helped the Japanese firm to keep its seat at the top of the table.
Sources and Recommended Reading:
Sony back at top of console sales after eight years: uk.finance.yahoo.com
Sony sold 4.2 million PS4s by December 28: www.afterdawn.com
Written by: James Delahunty @ 8 Jun 2014 11:33
