Twenty years ago this month, Sony and Nintendo launched new home consoles in North America two days apart. By the companies' own numbers, the Wii shipped more consoles and the PS3 shipped more games.
Two launches, two days apart
Sony launched the PlayStation 3 in North America on 17 November 2006, a date it announced that May. Nintendo's sales records list the Wii as released in the Americas two days later, on 19 November 2006.
The two consoles took different approaches. The Wii was built around the motion-sensing Wii Remote. The PS3 combined Sony's Cell processor with a Blu-ray drive and could play many PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games.
The Wii shipped more consoles
Nintendo's historical sales data puts the Wii at 101.63 million consoles worldwide, life to date. Of those, 48.64 million went to the Americas, more than any other region Nintendo reports.
Sony lists the PS3 at more than 87.4 million consoles worldwide, as of 31 March 2017. Both are sell-in figures, which count units shipped to retailers or sold directly, so they compare fairly. On those numbers, Nintendo's figure is about 14 million higher. Because Sony's is a "more than" figure, the true gap could be a little smaller.
The PS3 shipped more games
Software flips the result. Sony reports more than 999.4 million PS3 games shipped as of 31 March 2019. Nintendo's data puts Wii software at 921.85 million units, and Nintendo notes that its software count includes games bundled with consoles.
On the reported figures, that is roughly 11 games per PS3 shipped against roughly 9 per Wii.
What came next
Sony lists the PlayStation 4 at more than 117 million units as of 30 June 2022, and the PlayStation 5 at more than 100 million as of 10 November 2026.
Nintendo followed the Wii with the Wii U, which sold 13.56 million units by its own count, and then the Nintendo Switch, at 157.20 million units as of 30 September 2026. The Switch 2 had reached 26.35 million by the same date.
If you still use one
Our guides cover a Wii that won't connect to Wi-Fi, a PS3 with no HDMI picture and the PS3 internet browser.
