JAPAN: Wii prepares to pass GameCubes lifetime sales mark

After just a year on the market, Nintendo’s all-conquering Wii console has probably by now already passed the lifetime sales total of its dad, the GameCube, according to data from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain.

Japanese sales of the new machine at the end of last month had reached 4,025,356 – more or less spot on with GameCube’s lifetime sales total. Worldwide the GameCube sold 21.5 million machines – a number Wii looks easily set to pass in 2008.

Comparing the Wii to the performance of its direct rivals, it’s well ahead. PS3 has to date sold 1.5 million units and the Xbox 360 nearly half a million. PSP, meanwhile, has sold an impressive seven million units.

But it has a way to go to catch the DS, which to date has sold 20 million machines in the territory – and if its sales continue as they have been, it looks set to beat even the mighty PS2 by some time early next year.