A brand new Wii U sold for the first time in over a year

An analyst reports that a completely brand new Wii U has sold for the first time in over a year, in one of the strangest purchases of 2023.

Someone is out there trying to play their copy of Devil’s Third it would appear. Analyst Mat Piscatella has reported that a brand new Wii U has left a store shelf and counted for one of Nintendo’s units for the fiscal year.

It’s the first time the Wii U has sold any units since 2022. Piscatella elaborates that they have the data from “across most retailers” and it accounts for “97% of the hardware market”.

Piscatella is an analyst for Circana, which was formerly known as the NPD Group. The company is known for its extensive tracking of video game sales in both software and hardware.

The Wii U and 3DS are currently in the process of being sunsetted permanently by Nintendo. While the Super Mario developer might have discontinued the Wii U in 2017 following the extreme success of the Switch, it’s only this year it plans to shut off its online services.

Nintendo sold a Wii U in 2023 for its full price

According to Piscatella, the unit cost was still the full price, $299.99, which could possibly be the base unit. The Wii U launched with two versions, a 32GB console and an 8GB console, which cost $349.99 and $299.99. However, Nintendo adjusted the prices later in its life cycle to attempt to move more units.

The Wii U was a commercial failure for Nintendo. A combination of customer confusion and lack of interest in its software offering caused the Wii’s successor only to move a total of 13.56 million. In comparison, the Nintendo Switch currently has moved just under 130 million units.

Piscatella does state they don’t track inventory, however. It’ll be impossible to see who has fresh Wii U consoles in the back, as Circana doesn’t have the information on hand.

Despite its failures, the Wii U had a bounty of titles that have mostly made their way over to the Switch in some form or another.