Charting which Nintendo systems got the most games

Stuffed in amidst Nintendo’s quarterly earnings report was an interesting, updated look at the number of games released for every system going back to NIntendo’s first.

I grabbed the numbers, which are broken down into three regions for each platform, and built a little chart with them for easier comparison.

The thing that sticks out most is just how comparatively few games were released for the Wii U, lower even than what came out for the Nintendo 64.

It’s by no means an apples-to-apples comparison, but just for a bit more context, 85 games have already been announced for the Nintendo Switch and it’s not even out yet.

It’s worth noting, though that the Wii U seems basically dead in the water (with one major exception). In its latest earnings report, Nintendo noted that the console saw a 75 decrease in hardware sales compared to the same period last year and a 45 percent decrease in software.

On the other hand, for the Wii U console, we planned to ship 0.8 million units this fiscal year, based on our forecasts of comprehensive demand for Nintendo hardware. Activity has conformed to our expectations from the start of the fiscal year, with hardware sales volume of 0.76 million units (75% decrease on a year-on-year basis) and software sales volume of 12.48 million units (45% decrease on a year-on-year basis).

There are a couple of caveats about the numbers, according to Nintendo. I’ve listed those below the graphic.

Caveats

• The “other” region, according to the original data, “consist of new software titles released only in the European market from FY3/2013.”
• Downloaded Nintendo Power titles are excluded from Japan’s GameBoy numbers.
• The numbers for the Nintendo DS include games for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi, and Nintendo DSi XL and does not include Nintendo DSiWare.
• The number of new titles for Wii does not include that of Virtual Console and WiiWare.
• Family Computer Disk Drive System titles are excluded from Japan’s NES numbers and downloaded Nintendo Power titles are excluded from Japan’s SNES numbers.
• Both the 3DS and Wii U numbers only include physical sales.

Correction: This story initially left off the final caveat on the above list. We apologize for the error.