Nintendo Wii U Sells 400K Units In One Week

The Nintendo Wii U has sold approximately 400,000 units during its first week on retail shelves, according to GameSpot.

Although the Wii U might be the latest and greatest console Nintendo has to offer at the moment, that didn’t stop it predecessor from moving quite a few units as well. Sales reports indicate that the company sold 300,000 Wiis during the past seven days. This number was likely helped by numerous Black Friday deals.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed the numbers during a recent interview with the folks at CNET. When all of the sales numbers are combined — which includes other hardware like the Nintendo DS and 3DS — the company sold a staggering 1.5 million units in the past week.

“Wii U is essentially sold out of retail and we are doing our best to continually replenish stock,” Files-Aime explained. “Retailers are also doing their best to get the product to store shelves. But as soon as product hits retail, they’re selling out immediately.”

Although the buzz surrounding the new Nintendo Wii U wasn’t nearly as deafening as the noise the Wii generated when it debuted in 2006, this didn’t stop the machine from flying off retail shelves. Files-Aime said that the company learned a thing or two about supply and demand since then.

“Wii was a unique phenomenon,” Files-Aime stated. “You couldn’t walk into a retailer and buy a Wii until spring of 2009. We’ve certainly learned many lessons from that and we are replenishing retailers more quickly this time around. We are looking to have as much product into retail as possible. It’s driven by consumer response.”

If everything goes according to Nintendo of America’s master plan, the company hopes to sell 5.5 million units of the Wii U by the end of fiscal 2012. These numbers suggest that Nintendo is well on its way to achieving this goal.

Did you pick up a Nintendo Wii U last week?