Key Highlights:
- Xbox 360 was closing the gap on Nintendo Wii sales in the UK by early 2013.
- Microsoft’s console was approaching eight million UK sales after a strong end to 2012.
- Xbox 360 eventually overtook the Wii in June 2013 to become the UK’s best-selling console of its generation.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was closing in on Nintendo Wii sales in the UK at the beginning of 2013, raising the prospect that it could overtake Nintendo’s console later that year.
The Wii had built a substantial lead after overtaking Xbox 360’s UK installed base in 2007. By early 2013, however, Microsoft had narrowed that advantage as Xbox 360 hardware continued to sell strongly while Wii sales declined.
GLN had already reported that the Xbox 360 outsold Wii and Wii U combined in the US during November 2012, highlighting the unusually strong late-life momentum behind Microsoft’s seven-year-old console.
The UK gap continued to close over the following months. Xbox 360 passed eight million UK sales in early 2013 and had reached approximately 8.4 million units by June.
GfK Chart-Track then confirmed that Xbox 360 was about to overtake the Wii. Microsoft’s console completed the turnaround in June 2013, becoming the best-selling seventh-generation home console in the UK.
The result reversed a lead Nintendo had held for more than five years. Wii had surpassed Xbox 360’s UK installed base in December 2007 despite Microsoft launching its console a year earlier.
Globally, the picture remained different. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 had each passed approximately 70 million units by late 2012, while Wii remained comfortably ahead worldwide and did not cross 100 million sales until 2013.
