The Nintendo Wii has an installed base of 4.9 million units in the UK, according to GameIndustry.biz – making it the most popular console in the UK, at the moment. The Xbox 360 is the next, with an installed base of 3.9 million units, and the Playstation 3 coming in last place, out of the home consoles, with 1.9 million.
This, in addition to 12 million PSP and DS handheld consoles, has meant that the UK now has an installed base of over 22 million units – which works out to be about one console for every 3 people. The handheld units make up the majority of the 22 million, most likely due to their cheap cost and popularity with younger audiences, although the development of more complex games may also be a reason.
At a first glance, the figures would appear to be damning for the Playstation 3 and PSP, which came last in both categories: home consoles, and handheld consoles. However, the results are only relative – the PS3 still sold 1.9 million units in total – 1 million from 2008, and 0.9 million from before then.
The Nintendo DS and DS Lite made up most of the 12 million handheld units, with 8.8 million units sold, whereas the PSP sold a smaller 3.2 million. Although these figures don"t show the success of the console developers, with price and other factors to be considered, they certainly show the consoles which are scoring with the consumers, and those which evidently aren"t.