Nintendo Reports Grim New Sales Figures, Only 160,000 Wii U Consoles Sold Last Quarter

Nintendo’s (TYO:7974) latest financial report is out, replete with some grim statistics on gaming console sales. According to Nintendo’s own numbers (for Q1 2014 in Japanese financial terms) for April to June this year, the company sold just 160,000 Wii U consoles. That’s so few that Nintendo could gather all the buyers into the largest stadium in the world to thank them individually.

Wii U sales have tanked alarmingly, notes The Verge, since the first quarter after its launch when 3.06 million were sold. Nintendo admits “the Wii U hardware sales still have a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits” and that its figures were saved by software sales and the strength of the portable 3DS console.

The original Wii fared better, selling 210,000 units in the most recent financial quarter. 1.4 million Nintendo 3DS were sold.

Nintendo hit net sales of $832 million (down 3.2 percent on same period last year), but scraped through with $88 million in profit (Updated: Added in the profit figure).

As we noted earlier this year, the rise of smartphone gaming has seriously impacted Japan’s once thriving, multi-billion-dollar video game industry.

(See report: Nintendo (PDF file))

(Editing by Vanessa Tan)