We are roughly one month away from the one-year anniversary of the Switch’s release, and the console has surpassed the Wii U in just about every way possible. According to Kotaku’s calculations, the amount of games on the Wii U is no match for the Switch’s. In fact, even the Wii’s game library is nothing compared to the Switch game library. It has been 279 days since the Switch launched, and the console has managed to accumulate 3 times as many games as the Wii U did in that same time span. There are 191 Switch games available on day 279. The Wii U didn’t reach that same number until 857 days after the console launched. Here’s Kotaku’s chart on the matter:
The Switch Currently Has 3 Times As Many Games As The Wii U Did At This Point

Wii has one of the worst game attachment rates of it’s generation. Switch is bound to surpass it in that area with far less units sold if they keep the momentum going with the Nintendo 1st party games, major 3rd party games, minor 3rd party games, and indie games as Wii can’t boast the overwhelming support from all game developers like Switch can currently do.
Wii has a near 9 to 1 game to console attachment ratio…
That was surpassed by ps3 and xbox 360… with 10 to 1 ratios. Wii actually has one of the best game to console ratios in Nintendo’s history…
Technically his point still stands. That generation’s software sales and hardware sales went in reverse order. When it came to hardware sales, the DS sold the most followed by Wii, then PS3, then X360. When it came to software sales, X360 sold the most, then PS3, then Wii, then DS.
Also PS3 and 360 had nearly 12 to 1 attach rates while Wii’s was nearly 10 to 1.
When it comes to third-party attach rates then the numbers might be very different for the Wii.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Wii_video_games
There’s 53 games that sold more than 1 million copies and third-party doesn’t even chart until number 18. When you add up the sales of all 31 Nintendo published games on that list, it make up 473 million sales out of just under 975 million total sales for the system and that’s not factoring in Wii Sports (because it’s a pack in title). If software sales for the Wii DO include Wii Sports than that’s 555 million sales which is 57% of all Wii software sales.
The remaining 22 third-party games that made that list make up just 36.764 million sales or 3.8%.
Compare that to the 360.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Xbox_360_video_games
There’s 63 games that sold more than 1 million copies on the X360 with Microsoft only publishing 21 of them and those games they make up 187.764 million out of 1.007 billion games sold, or just 18.6%.
No it doesn’t because the Wii was just “forgotten” about in a few short years. The one thing that popularize it was motion controls and that fad quickly died by late 2010. And that’s where Nintendo’s dumbass arrogance rolled in that ultimately killed any hint of hardcore in them left.
” The one thing that popularize it was motion controls and that fad quickly died by late 2010.”
The Wii launched in 2006. 4 years is most of a standard Nintendo life cycle. “the fad” dying out wasn’t particularly a problem in any measurable sense. Most especially since motion controls had actually started to die out in 2008 when Nintendo switched strategies to releasing NES style games, leading tot he console’s all time best selling month, Dec 2009, with the release of New Super Mario Bros Wii., a game that didn’t promote motion controls much at all. Really, what you’re advertising, is you have no idea what the appeal of the Wii was.
The more games on it the more is the support and the life for the console.
I’m also impressed about the Wii library be even bigger than the Wii U
What about the 3DS
The 3DS is also a console that have a large support. One thing I found few days ago are DS game where you can find on the VC console of the Wii U and not for the 3DS
Is Quadradxis ok? I haven’t see it in this site in quite a few days.
That’s true.. Where is Quadraxis? Maybe he’s took a break like Church of Sasori did a while back.
When we see the news about MP4 he surely appear
I see, so it may appear now that MNN posted a rumor about Bandai Namco developing Metroid Prime 4.
Don’t worry. He will show up.
This comes to no surprise. Majority of them are indie games and third party titles.
So just like the other consoles? There is more third party games on the PS4 and DEFINITELY the Xbox One.
I fail to see the reason to scoff at the news. It’s a pretty impressive feat in such a short time.
Don’t forget XBOX ONE X.
Yes, well I wasn’t implying that it wasn’t good news.
For now and isn’t that exactly what the folks wanted? More third parties and now they got it and getting it.
I guess the Wii U sales was bad for a rough start since 2016. I think Nintendo switch sales was off the charts since summer of 2017. I bet the PS4 can’t even our match the system in this fiscal year because the PS4 sold much more then the XBOX ONE.
The eshop is a cesspool of shovelware. I wonder why Nintendo allows this
I love when people claim the console is plauged with shovelware when almost 90% of the games are ports from other platforms (PS4/Xbox One/PC/Mobile).
Software is software. Whatever your opinion is on said such software doesn’t change the enjoyment others are having.
I should’ve reiterated that the eshop isn’t JUST shovelware. There are still a fair share of masterpieces of 1st party games (minus 1 2 switch) , good ports and indies. Shovelware still bothers me though. Getting Wii flashbacks.
Good thing about the eShop “shovelware” is that it’s not flooding the store shelves and, on eShop, it can be easily ignored on sight if it looks like shit nor isn’t advertised by the makers. So I’m not too worried or ignored like in the Wii days.
Remember when people bitched about Nintendo being picky of third parties and shit? Well, their solution is to open the floodgates and now people still complain either “shovelware” or poor ports of next gen games that 1. Didn’t think would happen and 2. Also asked for at the same time.
I would like to point out that this article is a great piece to point to when all the nay sayers claim the Switch has no games.
The Switch is receiving multiple game announcements daily and shows that the library is constantly growing weekly.
It’s going to be NUTS once Nintendo puts the virtual console on the market place.
Wii U: 8 Player Smash bros with Megaman and you can create your own fighter.
Switch: Loads of indie garbage and a handful of good games.
Quantity over quality.
But Smash came out exactly two years after the Wii U released. One year out we only had Nintendo Land, Mario Bros, Mario World, Pikmin, a port or two (Windwaker), and a couple fun little things like Wonderful 101 and ZombiU. This time one year out, we have Zelda, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, Arms, some ports like Mario Kart, and fun things like Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Wii U seriously lacked a replayable title that wasn’t beaten and done with. This time around, I can still go back to playing Mario Kart, Splatoon, or Arms when first party release dates get too far between. The first year of Wii U was a barren wasteland punctuated by a few good singleplayer titles that were beaten in a week and retired to the shelf. And another major difference is that this time, I have access to a boatload of favorite (and critically well received) indie games on handheld that used to only be on my PC.
Maybe you’ll get your Smash bros in year 2 this gen too.
Wii U Smash has no offline tournament mode, no online 8 player, still lags, no story/adventure mode and fucking Smash Tour…nuff said.
Stop defending a dead corpse that is Pii U. Also, wasn’t Wii U also full of indie garbage because that’s the other half of it’s pathetic library. Only note worthy indie I can think of is Freedom Planet which came late and Shantae 3 which is also on the 3DS and it’s a much superior port there.
When the Nintendo switch comes out with a Smash bros with Megaman, maybe then will I stop defending the Wii U.
….what? Smash Bros. now has Megaman. That makes no sense.
No no no. When the Nintendo SWITCH comes out with a Smash bros with Megaman.
Again, it will so why say that? Namco is like buddy buddy with Nintendo now. They’re making Metroid Prime 4 for god’s sake.
1. I’ll wait until we get proof. 2. Capcom made Megaman, not Namco.
Oh wait. My mistake. lol
The Wii U had the most games around launch, interesting!
That was obvious, as developers wanted to jump onto the next Wii for demand. Of course it flat lined thereafter because it never happened.
Bullshit. Black Ops 2 with no DLC and Nuketown came in 2 years later, another rehash of New Mario Bros./3D Land, badly ported games that got gimped to shit. None of the Wii U games aren’t remotely good or memorable. Before you say Bayonetta and shit, those are only the few, again, FEW exceptions.
They clearly must be counting digital games as well. It might be a different story if only physical games were counted.
It definitely shows. I already have 5 games for Switch with another 4 already being looked at for 2018. That’s already more games than what caught my interest on Wii U and I had that on day 1. Of course I’m only speaking physical retail games.
Slow clap, I guess that’s it. Strong launch from the U on software, but it flat lined immediately. Hopefully Nintendo keeps momentum.
Nice, too bad 90% of the games are actual garbage. Have any of you guys gone on the e-shop lately? Grab some buddies and a beer because it’s comedy gold how bad it is.
90%? You mean Wii U?
Well, that’s that for Pii U then. Let it be long forgotten and move on to making the Switch an even bigger console than Wii and SNES.
Guy’s its not just about quantity (indies) but also about quality (third party)
Here are some of the main franchises (triplle A 3th party) that Nintendo has to compete with vs PS4/Xbox1/PC (lets say they are one and the same since they have simular libraries) , that come to mind right now.
Diablo
Bioshock
Resident Evil
Call of Duty
Battlefield
Overwatch
Mass Effect
Kingdom Hearts
Final Fantasy
Tomb Raider
Street Fighter (Main franchise not the old 2d stuff)
Assassin’s Creed
Crash Bandicoot
Fallout
Need for Speed
Metal Gear
Mortal Kombat
The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim for example)
Grand Theft Auto
Dark Souls Series
The Witcher
Monster Hunter World
Titanfall
Dragon Age
Wolfenstein
Doom
FIFA and other sports games
Destiny
These are close to 30 franchises and I could probally find 15 more if we start adding games like Ni No Kuni , L.A. Noir ect. wich ain’t the top franchises but still well worth playing or even just as good just not as popular. Not to mention some of the top indie games Journey , Inside ect.
Please keep personal taste out of this list/discussion. As I have mentiont many times before I don’t care about cars or Gran Turismo but do regocnize it as a great Car game franchise even though I would never buy or play it.
And yes, I understand the Switch is 1 year old and some of these franchises have already been released on the Switch, or might come in the near future.
But we haven’t had these kind of lineup’s, since the Gamecube and arguably the Snes, if we want to talk Metal Gear, Final Fantasy , Street Fighter and some others.
It would be amazing, to have acces to all these sort of games and new future franchises on top of Nintendo 1th party. Infact the perfect Nintendo console needs these titles to even come close to the 8bit, snes and gamecube when looking at a quality library.
I hope Nintendo keeps the momentum though and put more and more third parties. The majority of the games are indies, not trying to depreciate the indies , they are great ( I even have a dream to make a game and put on switch or on a future nintendo console), but people want more AAA games too.