Wii is world leader

According to a report by Japanese economics resource Nikkei Net Kansai, the Wii has overtaken the Xbox 360 as the current leader of the next-generation console war – the first time Nintendo has reclaimed the title since the SNES days.

Taking together the figures from Enterbrain, NPD and GfK, the Wii has sold 9.02m units throughout the three territories as of the end of July (August for Enterbrain’s figures), eclipsing Microsoft’s global sales of 8.8m despite being launched a year later.

Sony’s PS3, launched in the US and Japan within a few days of the Wii, has only sold 3.7m in the same timeframe.

Nikkei Net Kansai’s report claims that two-thirds of 360 sales have been in the US, with the Japanese performance still failing to meet expectation. In contrast, the Wii has sold almost uniformly across the territories, despite lacking the technical clout of the cutting-edge PS3 and Xbox 360.