Wii made its highly anticipated debut across Europe on Friday 8th December, with thousands of people desperate to get their hands on Nintendo’s new console. Wii was an instant hit and selling out in stores all over Europe in just a matter of hours, 325,000 units were sold in the first two days making it the fastest selling home console in history.

Commenting on the launch Tim Ellis, Head of Games, HMV UK said:
“The demand for Wii has been truly amazing, and the official launch at our Oxford Street store was one of the biggest events we’ve ever staged there. HMV has received a huge amount of customer pre-orders - beyond anything we’ve ever seen before, including from family shoppers as well as dedicated Nintendo gamers. This suggests that while Wii is obviously one of the must-have items this Christmas, it also has the potential to appeal to a huge mainstream audience over the longer-term.”

Wii mania in Europe follows the phenomenal success of Nintendo’s console in the Americas and Japan, where over a million units have been sold in just three weeks. In the Americas, where the console launched on the 19th of November, 600,000 consoles were sold in the first 8 days from launch. The Japanese launch saw similar success with around 400,000 units being shipped to stores for launch day and selling out during the first morning on sale. After just a few days of sales in Europe the Wii seems to be achieving similar success.

Source: Nintendo