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Nintendo Wii Overtakes Other Consoles to Become Most Searched for Toy
December 12, 2006
The Wii went on sale in the UK yesterday and reportedly sold 50,000 units in 12 hours! We noticed on Hitwise that searches for the Nintendo Wii overtook searches for all other gaming consoles and even overtook the perennial favourite, iPod, to become the most searched for toy in the lead up to Christmas.
Share of UK internet searches for "nintendo wii" surged up 147% last week. The term "nintendo wii" was among the top 100 search terms based on volume of UK internet searches last week and ranked as the fourth highest volume product search term, after "premium bonds", "car insurance" and "broadband".
Two weeks ago, searches for the console overtook searches for "nintendo ds", the second most searched for games console. Last week, searches for the Wii overtook those for the iPod for the first time, with searches for "nintendo wii" 125% higher than searches for "ipod".
Whilst last week was one of the busiest weeks for Christmas shopping online. Visits to the Hitwise Retail Index (an index of 100 of the top retailers based on visits) were up 5.4% year on year and up 4% over the previous week. In spite of this, searches for many popular gaming consoles declined. Our search data shows that whilst searches for "nintendo wii" surged up last week, searches for "xbox 360", "psp", "ps3" and "playstation 3" all declined slightly.
Postscript:
I received some emails and comments asking why the Playstation 3 was not included in my chart. The PS3 is not yet available in the UK, so as you might expect, the share of UK internet searches for the console are quite a bit lower than for the Wii which launched last week.
The following chart shows searches for popular consoles, including the PS3.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 05:54 PM
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Comments
The PS3 isn't released until march in pal regions i.e. the UK
Posted by Cytzn | December 14, 2006 07:18 AM
No the PS3 isn't out in the UK and isnt due until March sometime. Meaning its going to have some ground to cover to catch up to the 710 million extra customers that the Wii and Xbox 360 are now targeting.
Posted by Ranger | December 14, 2006 11:49 AM
the wii is way better then ps3 thats y ps3 isn't on their
Posted by Anonymous | December 19, 2006 04:32 PM
well it appears even the ipod cant match the wii, although i do think the wii is more of an impulse buy than the ipod
Posted by Nintendo Wii Fan | February 17, 2007 05:54 PM
The shortages of stock and high demand forced shopper to look longer. I guess this is one answer.
Posted by Pro Gamer | July 11, 2007 11:46 PM
I'm assuming the PS3 isn't out yet in the UK?
Posted by Michael J | December 13, 2006 12:53 PM