Nintendo Wii hits 50 million units sold

Gaming nerds like me can argue about which is better, Xbox 360 or PS3, until the Mountain Dew runs dry, but it's ultimately an argument that's meaningless, as one fact can't be disputed: Nintendo's Wii console makes both look like about as successful as a penny arcade game of Whack-a-Mole.

To wit: The Wii has now sold 50 million consoles since its release, making it the fastest-selling platform in gaming history.

To put that in perspective, that's just shy of 3 million consoles sold each month, and it's now on par with the total sales of the Xbox 360s (about 28 million) and PlayStation 3 (about 22 million) combined.

No one, not even Nintendo, could have predicted that kind of success. Nintendo's last-generation console, the GameCube, sold a mere 21 million units during its entire production life.

Why has the Wii been such a monstrous -- and enduring -- hit? Easy: By reaching out to everyone, not just hardcore gamers looking to eke out one last kill, complete a 50-hour marathon quest, or oooh over high-definition video quality. Turns out people just really like that Wii Bowling, which offers endless replay value for gamers of literally every age.

That said, the Wii is also selling software outside of the Wii Sports franchise: At the same press conference as the 50-million announcement, Nintendo announced that more third-party games were sold for the console than any other platform last year.

In related news, Nintendo hit another milestone with the Nintendo DS handheld, which has now shipped 100 million units (though it's had far longer to do so). And as with the Wii (though all handhelds tend to skew younger) the DS is designed to appeal across demographic lines: 47 percent of DS buyers last year were women.