Holding a lifespan of under five years with under 14 million units sold, the Wii U stands as Nintendo’s biggest home console failure – all coming right before perhaps the most thunderous comeback in video game history.
Nintendo’s status as the standard bearer of home video games has been part of the industry since the 1985 release of Super Mario Bros. catapulted gaming into cultural relevance.
Despite the consistency and sales of PlayStation consoles, which have dominated most recent generations and remain the most popular among hardcore gamers, Nintendo remains on top of the video gaming world, thanks to the incredible success of the Nintendo Switch, the third-best selling video game console of all-time.
Released in 2017, the Switch was a first-of-its-kind console, combining the handheld and home gaming experience to serve as the successor to both its home and handheld predecessors in the Wii U and 3DS, respectively.
The innovation and accessibility of the Switch was unforeseen for gamers, skyrocketing Nintendo back to the forefront of the industry with a series of widely acclaimed first-party titles while appealing to indie and hardcore gamers in a way Nintendo previously failed to do.
The Switch was also not the first game-changing, industry-shifting console Nintendo had released – with the Switch’s release in some ways echoing the response to the initial launch of the Nintendo Wii just over a decade earlier in November 2006.
On the heels of a sixth generation that saw unmatched dominance from the PlayStation 2, Nintendo followed up an overall underwhelming commercial performance from the GameCube with the Wii, marketed for its innovative motion controls alongside launch title Wii Sports.
Though a clear step behind the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 when it came to hardware, the Wii was a major victory for Nintendo, boosted by other prominent first-party titles such as Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
While the Wii noticeably fell off with third-party developers later in its lifespan, the console nearly quintupled the GameCube’s sales of 21 million units with over 101 million units sold by the end of its lifespan.
Looking to segue the incredible success of the Wii into their next home console, Nintendo got a leg up on Sony and Microsoft by launching the Wii U in November 2012, a year ahead of the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
While this “leg up” was thought to have given Nintendo an advantage with sales, they didn’t even end up with the boost Sega got with Dreamcast sales when the console was released a year ahead of Sony’s PlayStation 2.
Though Nintendo shipped over 3 million consoles prior to the end of 2012, sales cratered in 2013 and never recovered during the console’s short lifespan, with third-party developers abandoning the system not long after launch.
There are several aspects of the console’s launch that one can point to as contributing factors towards the Wii U’s poor commercial performance – with unclear advertising being chief among them.
With Nintendo looking to build off of the Wii’s legacy by including its name in the new console, some consumers were immediately confused, wondering if the Wii U was merely a peripheral or extension of the original Wii, with the GamePad controller featuring prominently in early advertising.
Additionally, Nintendo likely could have executed their timing much more effectively when it came to a launch title.
The console’s primary launch title was New Super Mario Bros. U, the fourth inclusion of the New Super Mario Bros. series, but also the third release in the series within the span of just four years. Many families had purchased the Wii for Christmas in 2009, when New Super Mario Bros. Wii served as Nintendo’s holiday headliner, leaving the game, concept and series fresh into many gamers’ and families’ minds.
While the Wii U had a host of very strong first-party titles, namely games such as Super Mario 3D World, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U., all the games were released between 2013 and 2015, long enough after launch to where many gamers were just willing to pass on the game and console entirely.
This situation could have easily been avoided by Nintendo – the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 could have been delayed for next-generation updates to the game that would have made it a launch title. The gaming giant also could have simply waited a year and competed head-to-head with Microsoft and Sony, launching with the more unique Super Mario 3D World in 2013 instead.
As the console simply never took off commercially, Nintendo didn’t waste time planning for their next move, even as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were in the prime of their lifespans.
Just months after releasing an HD remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii U, Nintendo announced the upcoming launch of the Switch in October 2016, not even four years after the launch of the Wii U.
From there, Nintendo simultaneously made it clear that the Wii U would already begin its ride into the sunset – production began to wind down before officially halting in March 2017, the same month the Switch was released.
In a moment of serendipity that echoed the launch of the Wii when Twilight Princess served as both a Wii launch title and the final first-party release for the GameCube, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the final first-party release for the Wii U while acting as a launch title for the Switch.
While it’s easy to point out the failures of the Wii U, the console also did plenty right, much of which directly contributed to the success of the Switch.
This is perhaps the most apparent when looking at the Wii U’s controller and the obvious legacy it left behind. Advertised as the primary feature of the Wii U, the console included a “GamePad” controller that included a full screen and stylus, allowing for both a new degree of interactivity and the ability to play games on just the GamePad, forgoing the TV entirely.
This would clearly serve as influence for the Nintendo Switch, a console that literally appears to be just a screen on its own that transforms into a home console when connected to a docking station. Nintendo would build on the portability aspect even more in 2019 with the release of the Nintendo Switch Lite, a fully portable console capable of playing all Switch games.
Nintendo also took a major step up in presentation with the Wii U – after conspicuously lacking an HDMI port on the Wii, the Wii U became the first Nintendo console to include HDMI compatibility, finally bringing a true high definition, updated gaming experience to Nintendo’s classic first-party titles.
These graphical improvements were arguably the most noticeable on a Nintendo system since the transition from SNES to N64, turning the fuzzier, dated appearance of the Wii into a crisp, bright and colorful experience on the Wii U.
Though that aspect has been proven to essentially be a moot point as nearly every prevalent first-party Wii U game has since been ported to the Switch, one would have a hard time picking out much of a difference at all graphically between the two consoles.
In fact, the Wii U’s legacy played a much more direct role in the Switch’s success than influencing a hybrid gaming experience – as the Wii U’s games themselves have had plenty to do with the Switch’s success.
Even omitting Breath of the Wild as it was released concurrently for both systems, the re-release of Mario Kart 8 for the Switch remains the console’s best-selling game by a wide margin, having sold nearly 69 million units. Additionally, re-releases of New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze are among the console’s best-selling games.
As most of the lauded Wii U titles are now available on the much more accessible Switch, many gamers may see no reason to fire up a Wii U today, but I’m one to believe the experience remains worth it in 2025.
In addition to a surprisingly comfortable controller in the GamePad, the controller’s interface in games such as Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and New Super Mario Bros. U provide a unique gameplay experience that either partially or wholly did get phased out on the move to the Switch.
The console’s shift away from widespread motion controls into a more traditional gaming control scheme also aided in getting the most out of first-party titles, something the Wii U clearly has on its predecessor, whose controls feel especially clunky today.
While one can argue that Nintendo may have had a more successful launch if they were more committal to either sticking with or abandoning the imagery of the Wii while strategizing release titles a bit better, the Wii U’s existence was certainly not for nothing.
Although Nintendo aims to never see the ghastly sales it lived through with the Wii U, the console’s games, graphics and features all played an unmistakable role in the Switch’s meteoric rise to the top of the gaming world. Had Nintendo flopped yet again after the Wii U, it’s tough to see how the company could have responded to even the playing field with the hardcore gaming powerhouses of PlayStation and Xbox.
If you still have a Wii U, it’s still absolutely worth playing – there isn’t a gaming experience that replicates the feel and immersion of the GamePad. If you don’t have one, don’t sleep on picking one up at the right price – you’re still looking at incredible Nintendo classics in crisp high definition with a comfortable controller – in that respect, still the same that the Switch offers.
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