US: 2009 releases fail to perform on Wii

Almost all 2009 releases on Wii have been outsold in the States by games launched in previous years, with only EA Sports Active standing tall.

The latest NPD data, analysed by Gamasutra, shows that EA’s new fitness game is the only title in the top five best-selling Wii games of the year to be released since January. It came in fourth place behind Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii – two of which were released in 2008, with Wii Play released in 2007.

Wii Fit sold 3.06 million units between January and June 2009, while Wii Play shifted 1.5 million units and Mario Kart Wii sold 1.4 million units. These all outperformed the highest-selling titles on rival formats Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

EA Sports Active racked up 630,000 units in sales, despite only being available for two months, with the top five on Wii rounded off by another 2007 title, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, which sold 400,000 units.

These figures were in stark contrast to the top five best-selling games on PS3 and Xbox 360, almost all of which were released in 2009. Only the Xbox 360 version of Call Of Duty: World At War was released before January, which placed third in the format’s top five.

The top-selling titles on PS3 were Killzone 2, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, UFC: Undisputed, with Sony’s baseball title MLB ’09: The Show coming in at fifth.

Resident Evil 5 topped the Xbox 360 sales for the year so far, followed by UFC, World At War, Halo Wars and Street Fighter IV.