DailyTech - Amazon Sets Sales Records, Sells 17 Wiis a Second

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Internet Amazon Sets Sales Records, Sells 17 Wiis a Second
Jason Mick (Blog) - December 28, 2007 3:12 PM

33 comment(s) - last by Chevron.. on Jan 2 at 2:08 AM

Amazon cashed in this holiday season with record sales of hot tech products

Amazon.com has had its share of ups and downs, but it finished the holiday season on a ringing high note, reporting its strongest holiday sales figures ever.

Among the most astounding sales figures of all came from Nintendo's incredibly popular Wii Console. Apparently Reggie-Fils Aime wasn't lying when he said Wiis were gone faster than a blink of an eye. Whenever Amazon had Wiis in stock, they sold at an incredible rate of 17 per second, leaving shoppers, like old west gunfighters dependent on who had the fastest fingers.

The record setting pace is just one more small victory in the Wiis path of domination, for the console was once overlooked as an underpowered novelty. The Wii still handily holds the U.S. and world lead for top selling current generation console.

Strong DVD sales were also experienced by Amazon. Fans of the Harry Potter franchise were eager to buy Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for themselves and their loved ones, making it the best seller on Amazon. The second and third spots were occupied by Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Other best selling products on Amazon included Garmin GPS systems, utilitarian KitchenAid stand mixers, and the popular Apple MacBook, perhaps buoyed by enthusiastic reception of Apple's Leopard OS.

The biggest day for Amazon.com occurred on Monday, December 10, when eager shoppers purchased 5.4 million items -- about 62.5 items a second. Amazon shipped holiday gifts to consumers in over 200 countries and shipped 3.9 million purchases on its peak day.

It looks like the new years resolution for Amazon.com and Nintendo is going to be simply to keep up the good work.

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17wps

By NicePants42 on 12/28/2007 3:45:28 PM , Rating: 3

Soon the total number of Wiis sold will exceed the total number of Crysis frames rendered.

Sorry for yet another lame Crysis joke.

RE: 17wps

By Souka on 12/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: 17wps

By dflynchimp on 12/28/2007 4:39:59 PM , Rating: 3

no, I'm pretty sure they took the total number of Wiis sold in a sizable time frame and divied it up. Jeez, stop being a skeptic, Nintendo hit a homer this time.

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RE: 17wps

By Ringold on 12/28/2007 4:47:20 PM , Rating: 2

By my notoriously bad math, that would be, if sustained, over 10 million units sold per week.

In other words, every single American would have their own Wii in about 8 months.

Sounds.. a little excessive.

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RE: 17wps

By Souka on 12/28/2007 5:56:13 PM , Rating: 2

yeah...should be more like 6 months... LOL.

Wii... rocks. will probably get a Wii2 when it comes out in the future for my kids...

For now.. I"m a PC guy...no time for consoles :(

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RE: 17wps

By Lifted on 12/28/2007 4:40:40 PM , Rating: 1

As soon as the systems were in stock, it took their servers 1 second to process 17 preorders.

The idea of 17 people successfully going through the purchase process at the same time (second) for even 1 second is highly unlikely. Just a useless, practically made up, statistic.

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RE: 17wps

By jtesoro on 12/29/2007 1:41:26 AM , Rating: 3

I don't think it's unlikely at all given that people were on the hunt for Wiis and were keeping tabs on Amazon waiting for stock to show up. If 500 people were paying attention when the Wiis were posted, what's the likelihood of 17 completing at the same time? Pretty high if you ask me.

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RE: 17wps

By ImSpartacus on 12/28/2007 4:50:43 PM , Rating: 2

Let's say Amazon had a shipment of 500 Wii's come in. The total shipment of Wii's sold out in a little less than 30 seconds.

~30 sec X 17 wps = 500 total Wii's

Don't get skeptical, Amazon probably had a lucky break with the speed of a single shipment selling out and is trying to get some publicity out of it.

It seems to be working...

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RE: 17wps

By PlasmaBomb on 12/30/2007 4:56:53 PM , Rating: 1

Quick... I want 0.25 of a Wii.

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RE: 17wps

By qwertyz on 12/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: 17wps

By StevoLincolnite on 12/29/2007 12:22:33 AM , Rating: 1

Yes they did make it run on the most powerful GPU's, and a few years ago people were complaining because Hardware was exceeding the software, now that has turned around everyone starts complaining, welcome to the PC world.
Also, if you didn't know the Crytek Engine is actually rather scalable, and a friend of mine is happily playing it on his Radeon 9600XT, Athlon XP 2600+ and 1gb of ram, of course its all on low settings, with a smooth 25-30 fps+
On say... a Radeon x800 or Geforce 6800, you can expect Medium settings.
Then, if you are smart enough, you would run the game in direct X 9 mode, and get the mod which enables all the "Direct X 10" effects, thus giving you a rather large boost in performance without no loss in quality.

And I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas, and have a great New years, and I am glad Nintendo is selling so well, more competition in the games arena is a good thing for us gamers!

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RE: 17wps

By smut on 12/29/2007 1:46:24 AM , Rating: 1

Dude your just making crap up now. There is no way Farcry on high looks better then Crysis on high.

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Theory on Wii Haters

By feelingshorter on 12/29/2007 3:15:22 AM , Rating: 3

Weird how Wii haters refuse to look at the numbers. Its almost impossible to think someone could be that unreasonable. Go to amazon.com and look for a 360/PS3, they are both available. Now look for a Wii, not available from Amazon (except from non amazon sellers price gouging for as much as 395).

Maybe Microsoft/Sony is using viral marketing to thread crap any positive Wii news. Sony, as we've learned from past Dailytech articles, have used viral marketing before (cell phones, remember?).

Almost funny that every positive Wii news released by dailytech instantly gets hate posts. Why does that happen? I own a wii and its a great console. I never play it by myself (only with friends, which i have no lack of) and its ridiculously fun. My friends get so freakin loud (from laughing) that i have to tell them to shut up sometimes while playing the Wii. Have you seen people play the PS3/360? Its not that lively of a scene comparatively.

RE: Theory on Wii Haters

By FITCamaro on 12/29/2007 9:58:09 AM , Rating: 2

If you're not getting loud playing with any system other than the Wii, you're not playing with the right people. Me and my friends have an awesome, hilarious time any time we get together to play some Halo multiplayer. Rockets only.

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RE: Theory on Wii Haters

By damncrackmonkey on 12/29/2007 9:39:56 PM , Rating: 1

Other than maybe our Wii Bowling drinking game, Rock Band provides a far more lively experience than any Wii game.

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What a Coincidence

By GTVic on 12/29/2007 6:34:40 AM , Rating: 1

I was buying 17 Wiis per second. But then I returned them because I couldn't sell them on Ebay fast enough...

pc vs wii vs xbox vs ps3 bleh

By edborden on 12/30/2007 10:19:45 AM , Rating: 1

Alot of the arguments you guys are making are all based on specific games, which is irrelevant in terms of wii-hating and all of this other stuff. Wii is fun across the spectrum of ages because of Wii sports and the motion controllers. You'll get people on other consoles not wanting to budge because that's where their game/genre/publisher has chosen to throw their weight. Wii fills a specific need - cheap, broad appeal, light.

I recently wrote an article about this at http://edborden.blogspot.com/2007/12/pc-vs-console...

Wow

By cleco on 12/28/07, Rating: -1

RE: Wow

By neothe0ne on 12/28/2007 3:41:31 PM , Rating: 4

Obviously, "great" is a relative term, and some people will really buy a console just for one game (like some people here buy graphics cards just for one game, which isn't even that great, such a crisis cough)

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RE: Wow

By MADAOO7 on 12/28/2007 3:57:58 PM , Rating: 2

Wii not that great? Who you kidding? The games are fantastic and I can finally get my parents and girlfriend into finding the same enjoyment that I get from playing Halo, COD4, Starcraft, etc. It simply serves a different purpose than my 360 or computer.

I think the craze is definitely to Nintendo's advantage. People on some level enjoy trying to hunt a Wii out. Once they get it, it is that much more satisfying. I'm a powerseller on ebay and you'll see people have bidding wars on one item, when I have another of the same item listed at a Buy It Now price for less than they are bidding. eBay really captures this idea well with their new "Shop Victoriously" advertising slogan. eBay's success is partially due to the fact that people are naturally competitive and they find winning an item more satisfying than simply picking it up at a store.

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RE: Wow

By cleco on 12/28/2007 5:46:28 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
Wii not that great? Who you kidding? The games are fantastic and I can finally get my parents and girlfriend into finding the same enjoyment that I get from playing Halo, COD4, Starcraft, etc. It simply serves a different purpose than my 360 or computer.

too bad they still won't play those games.

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RE: Wow

By vortex222 on 12/28/2007 8:24:49 PM , Rating: 2

there is nothing wrong with the wii as a system. For my taste i prefer PC gaming and the Xbox 360 however....

I bought a gamecube just for the Zelda series and SSB. Bought it and the games used, so im satisfied. I will do the same with the WII in a year or so.

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RE: Wow

By damncrackmonkey on 12/29/2007 9:55:44 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
I'm a powerseller on ebay

I think you misspelled asshole.

If your powerselling doesn't relate to scavenging popular items and reselling them at exorbitant prices (which seems unlikely since you mentioned it in a Wii-related article) I will gladly retract my comment.

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RE: Wow

By kusala on 12/28/2007 4:16:27 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
Fun but nothing spectacular about the Wii

Key word FUN!!!!! That seems to be left out of alot of consoles.

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RE: Wow

By Shinei on 12/28/2007 4:31:43 PM , Rating: 2

It's actually more the "nothing spectacular" part that matters. The games aren't any better than games you'd find on the PC, PS3, or 360, which is why it's ever more baffling why the Wii continues to sell units faster than Michael Jackson CDs in 1986.

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RE: Wow

By Connoisseur on 12/28/2007 5:10:25 PM , Rating: 2

Cheap and family friendly.

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RE: Wow

By BCanR2D2 on 12/28/2007 7:02:29 PM , Rating: 2

The PS3 and 360 are both very adult oriented systems. Too busy trying to do the most things, or look the best, rather than concentrate on what sells consoles - fun!! The thing is that it has attracted more attention outside the tech geeks, who chose the PS2 or 360 based upon their high specs.

They took a gamble and introduced something novel - helping players get physically involved with more accurate actions that doing button presses to play well.

Bet ya that MS and Sony are lining up their own units for their next console, or as addons to the current one, as it seems to have hit a spot with most people.

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RE: Wow

By ImSpartacus on 12/28/2007 4:43:30 PM , Rating: 2

A Wii isn't any 'funner' than a 360 or PS3, but it's a different kind of fun. The Wii is aimed at a slightly different market than the PS3.

It's not a totally different market, I enjoy playing a Wii and shooting some terrorists on COD4. There's a lot of overlap, but the important part is that the Wii encompasses all those 'soft-core' gamers too, including all the little kids.

So Mom and Pop can go out and hunt down an elusive Wii and give it to the kiddies for Christmas (errr late) and be able to play too without having to learn how to use a bunch of buttons and such.

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RE: Wow

By Shlong on 12/29/2007 1:32:49 PM , Rating: 3

Wii opens a whole new market for people who wouldn't even look at consoles. Like my parents (in their 50's), my grandparents (in their 70's), my younger cousin's (in preschool), and my girlfriend (who doesn't play any games besides the wii). The PS3 & Xbox 360 are great consoles, actually I prefer them... but they're only great for the main core audience (people who frequent sites like DailyTech). My parents, grandparents, younger cousins, and girlfriend would never want to play a game on PS3 nor Xbox 360. So Nintendo went the smart route and opened up a niche market to everybody... while for the PS3 & Xbox 360 it's still a niche market.

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RE: Wow

By Aquila76 on 12/29/2007 4:54:24 PM , Rating: 2

I agree. I never would have believed my 80 yr-old Grandma would ever play a video game; but, she does very good at Wii Bowling. Grandma's arthritic fingers trying to button-mash a PlayStation or Xbox controller? THAT will never happen.

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RE: Wow

By ZaethDekar on 12/29/2007 10:52:24 PM , Rating: 2

I have a Wii, and everyone loves to play it.

My best friend has a 360 and gets bored playing halo... He plays Medal of Honor and Call of Duty on the Wii because of how the controls are.

Not to mention they have the Mario, Metroid, and Zelda that will stay on the Wii and not go to the 360 or PS3.

I don't know about you but to me Metroid looks just as good as Halo 3.

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RE: Wow

By bangmal on 12/30/2007 5:06:37 PM , Rating: 1

yeah my vhs looks as good as my blu-ray too
you need a stronger prescription for your glasses.
or Wii lovers are just that stupid?

Dont get me wrong. I got the wii thing 5 months ago, and played it for about 3 hours.

Even my 9 years old cousin got bored with it in a day or so and I put the Wii under my closet because i have to get space for my xbox 360 and ps3.

It is just a waste of money. The wii thing is a hype like the "eletronic pet" back in 1997, it was hyped up for a year or so and dumped like garbage.

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RE: Wow

By Chevron on 1/2/2008 2:08:11 AM , Rating: 3

"Dont get me wrong. I got the wii thing 5 months ago, and played it for about 3 hours."

What did you play? Just wii sports?

You can't base just the Wii on just one game. There are far too many people who just play one game on the wii and instead of saying that the specific wii game is crap they say the wii is crap.

What if I think halo is crap? Does that mean the xbox 360 is crap?

No, of course not. There are other games. Just like there are plenty of games on the wii.

If all you played were crappy ps2 ports that is YOUR fault not the wiis.

Try playing Medal of honour heroes2 multiplayer. No more Heroes is coming soon as well.

What also irritates me is that people think the wii is just for local multiplayer(eg. party games).

I haven't bought even 1 party game for my wii yet.

I've got Metroid3, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda:TP and mercury meltdown.

Just to re iterate. If you play crap games on the wii of course you'll think the wii is crap. If you actually manage to avoid the shovelware and PS2 ports the Wii is a great system for single or multiplayer gaming.

I should mention that I used to be a PC only gamer. I have a pretty decent pc and some of the best games on pc as well.

Prey, bioshock, world in conflict and company of heroes to name a few. None of them really hold my interest.

My wii has gotten more play time in the last two months than my pc has gotten in the last 6.

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"Game reviewers fought each other to write the most glowing coverage possible for the powerhouse Sony, MS systems. Reviewers flipped coins to see who would review the Nintendo Wii. The losers got stuck with the job." -- Andy Marken