Nintendo Hardware and Software Tops Charts in 2010, Third Parties Rise

While hardware sales overall took a dive for Nintendo, it didn’t stop them from taking the top spot yet again in 2010. The Nintendo DS took top honors selling just over 8.5 million units, while the Wii took second place with just over 7 million units sold in the United States. Those numbers may be down from 2009, but they are still impressive considering that it was the 5th year of recorded sales respectively for the systems.

That isn’t the end of good news overall for both Nintendo and it’s fans. While games for Nintendo systems took 13 of the top 25 software sales spots on the year, it was what happened in December that should be a good indication of the future. Just Dance 2, a third party Wii exclusive, took home the #2 overall sales spot in December. Another recently released 3rd party game, Disney’s Epic Mickey, landed at the #5 spot, selling 1.32 million units just in the states last month. The third parties of course weren’t the only thing to shine for Nintendo, as Donkey Kong Country Returns took home the #5 spot.

On the year, Nintendo made games had a big presence in the top software sales. New Super Mario Bros. Wii topped the charts for Nintendo at #4 overall in game sales across all platforms on the year. Rounding out the overall sales charts for Nintendo is Wii Fit Plus at #5 and Just Dance 2 at #6. Very strong showings overall for Nintendo in what had to be considered another successful year for one of the leading game companies in the world.

To me, what this shows is some critical things in regards to the future of our gaming experience with Nintendo. As December sales have shown, third parties CAN be successful on the Wii. With the Nintendo 3DS already seeing major support, and with games like Epic Mickey selling very well, it’s very like that the Wii and 3DS will see a lot of third party support in 2011. Already strong demands are being made for other third party titles like The Last Story to come stateside, and Monster Hunter Tri sold well last year to also help bolster hope. From the look of things, third parties are starting to finally come around on Nintendo, and realize that hey, what they said is true all along: It’s about the gameplay, not the graphics. Wait, didn’t Destructoid just say that?

Source: Nintendo Press, Neogaf

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