Let's step away from Wii U for a minute to talk about Nintendo's previous console. Even though sales of Wii hardware have all but dried up, sales of Wii software have continued at a slow but steady pace. One such piece of software is New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which has just cleared 10 million in North America alone.
Selling 10 million copies of a game in a single region is no easy feat, but it's a borderline impossible feat for a single game on a single console. Sure, the various Call of Duty titles broke 10 million in North America as well, but the multiple platform SKUs have to be combined in order to clear that benchmark.
The ridiculous thing to note is that New Super Mario Bros. Wii is merely the fourth best-selling game on Wii, according to this chart that tracked global sales through the end of March 2014. You could discount Wii Sports since it was bundled with the hardware for most of its life, but the other games on the list owed most of their sales to standalone purchases.
Really brings home just how poorly Wii U has been performing in comparison.
