'Wii Fit' sales to surpass 'Grand Theft Auto IV'

Wii Fit has already sold more than 8.7 million units worldwide and has maintained a shockingly high sales run rate of about 225,000 units per week for the last few months.

At the same time, Take-Two Interactive Software's Grand Theft Auto IV has dropped off the best seller lists with about 10.6 million copies sold, which means that Nintendo's Wii Fit should surpass it in sales.

What's driving this? Women. Nintendo realized that there was an untapped audience of "women and moms" (their words, not mine) that would allow it to expand the brand. This is counter to the traditionally male-dominated world of video games.

Wagner James Au nails the irony of Wii Fit versus GTA:

A blockbuster franchise for nearly a decade, Grand Theft Auto's fantasy world of antisocial behavior has helped solidify a stereotype of gamers as 18-34 males, but the market has expanded far beyond that sector. Wii Fit's success is the most prominent, emblematic example of that shift. And an ironic one at that: Every edition of GTA has aroused complaints over its portrayal of women. Yet this year, it's women consumers who will help steal Grand Theft Auto IV's thunder.

A number of casual game makers I have spoken with told me that their audience is primarily women. Maybe Nintendo has cracked the code for an emerging market.

Link to GigaOm: Wii Fit on track to outsell GTA IV this year

[amber-taylor]

Wii Fit could be great but I think they need an easier/cheaper way to update their games/options. Runner's World just came out with an article (http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263-266-12918-0,00.html) about how effective the games/workouts are and prolonged entertainment factor.

My $0.02 - in this economy any game/drug (legal of course)/mindless entertainment/beauty routine will thrive. Let's just hope for the game makers they can make them cheaper/better and for the rest of us game makers create with education and growth in mind. Drugs can get them through the creation (kidding). Mindless entertainment can be the guise. Beauty routines are simple - plaster a cute bod and face on the box and you've got gold.

p.s. comment courtesy of a woman - I'm not interested so much in paying for something to make me fit (I'd rather run) but I want to help get husbands/friends/kids off the couch and doing something and the mask of a game is brilliant.

[daverosenberg]

Good points! Anything that will get my fat self off the couch is a potential goldmine.

[iConquered]

The Wii is easily marketable for its novelty. It is not as imposing and the software has a much more general appeal, as opposed to say games that appeal primarily to fighting game fans or games that appeal primarily to sports fans. The idea and longstanding momentum behind the Wii, is that the games are designed for people who just want to "have fun" or "pass the time." It may not be an idea that veteran gamers are comfortable with, but if Nintendo continues on this path, there is little to be dubious of, when I say that casual gamers (Women, the young and the old) are going to be present in this industry, far longer than the interim.

[brebuch1]

Nintendo said when the Wii was in development and being called the Revolution that they were going to let XBox and PS3 fight over the 1 out of 10 people that play video games. They were going after the 9 out of 10 that don't. As a longtime Nintendo fan, it is nice to see their strategy succeed.