Wii Fit sucker-punches Street Fighter 4, Wii and DS reign supreme in Feb

Wii Fit reaches for the sky

When the NPD Group released U.S. sales numbers for the month of February ’09, Wii Fit topped the charts as having sold 644,000 units in that month, despite the fact that the ‘personal trainer’ has been on the market for 10 months already and at a higher price point than many other games. Trust me, I’ve lost more than one bet on the success of this title and it doesn’t seem that demand for the casual workout game is waning.

But the numbers don’t reflect the entire story. Street Fighter 4 sales, released on the PS3 and Xbox 360, are treated as separate SKUs in the NPD’s sales data, coming in with 403,000 and 446,000 respectively. That actually puts SF4 at a total of 849,000 units collectively in its debut month, topping Wii Fit by over 200,000 units for a single IP. Take that Nintendo!

On the hardware front, the story continues to be Nintendo dominance. The Wii moved 753,000 boxes – up from 679,200 in January – and the DS sold through to the tune of 588,000 in February, taking the top two spots. Coming in a distant third was the X360 at 391,000 and the PS3 at 276,000 in the forth spot. The Mario Factory’s supremacy in the handheld market looks to continue with the looming April 5th launch of the Nintendo DSi, the third iteration of the DS that adds camera functionality and wider screens. Sony’s PSP handheld racked up only 1/3rd of U.S. DS sales, coming in at 199,000 units sold in February.

Software and hardware sales continue to climb even in the face of a widening recession. Overall software, hardware and accessory sales climbed 10 percent to hit $1.47 billion, a 11 percent increase from last February. People who aren’t buying cars and houses are working out in front of their TVs while throwing fireballs at each other… what a great time to be alive!