Wii U sells 400,000 units in US launch week

Nintendo sold 400,000 units of its Wii U console since its launch in the US last week.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed the US sales figures for Wii U in an interview with CNET.

As well as the 400,000 Wii U units in the US, Nintendo also shared that 300,000 Wii consoles and 500,000 portable systems (3DS and DS) were sold during the period. That puts Nintendo’s total for the holiday week at 1.2m units across its devices.

“Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock," Fils-Aime said. “Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves. But as soon as product hits retail, they’re selling out immediately.”

By comparison, the original Wii sold 475,000 units in the US during its launch week in 2006.

Based on the 500,000 Wii U pre-orders reported earlier this month by Gamestop, it appears that a lack of stock is a key reason the console didn’t quite match its predecessor out of the gate.

Nintendo’s Wii U launches in Europe on November 30th, followed by Japan on December 8th.