This article is about the video game console. For other uses, see Wii (disambiguation)
The Wii[g] ( ; WEE) is a 🌞 home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and 🌞 in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, following the 🌞 GameCube and is a seventh-generation console alongside Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
In developing the Wii, Nintendo president Satoru 🌞 Iwata directed the company to avoid competing with Microsoft and Sony on computational graphics and power and instead to target 🌞 a broader demographic of players through novel gameplay. Game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda led the console's development under 🌞 the codename Revolution. The primary controller for the Wii is the Wii Remote, a wireless controller with both motion sensing 🌞 and traditional controls which can be used as a pointing device towards the television screen or for gesture recognition. The 🌞 Wii was Nintendo's first home console to directly support Internet connectivity, supporting both online games and for digital distribution of 🌞 games and media applications through the Wii Shop Channel. The Wii also supports wireless connectivity with the Nintendo DS handheld 🌞 console for selected games. Initial Wii models included full backward compatibility support for GameCube games and most accessories. Later in 🌞 its lifecycle, two lower-cost Wii models were produced: a revised model with the same design as the original Wii but 🌞 removed the GameCube compatibility features and the Wii Mini, a compact, budget redesign of the Wii which further removed features 🌞 including online connectivity and SD card storage.
Because of Nintendo's reduced focus on computational power, the Wii and its games were 🌞 less expensive to produce than its competitors. The Wii was extremely popular at launch, causing the system to be in 🌞 short supply in some markets. A bundled game, Wii Sports, was considered the killer app for the console; other flagship 🌞 games included entries in the Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and Metroid series. Within a year of launch, the 🌞 Wii became the best-selling seventh-generation console, and by 2013, had surpassed over 100 million units sold. Total lifetime sales of 🌞 the Wii had reached over 101 million units, making it Nintendo's best-selling home console until it was surpassed by the 🌞 Nintendo Switch in 2024.[h] As of 2024, the Wii is the fifth-best-selling home console of all time.
The Wii repositioned Nintendo 🌞 as a key player in the video game console marketplace. The introduction of motion-controlled games via the Wii Remote led 🌞 both Microsoft and Sony to develop their own competing products—the Kinect and PlayStation Move, respectively. Nintendo found that, while the 🌞 Wii had broadened the demographics that they wanted, the core gamer audience had shunned the Wii. The Wii's successor, the 🌞 Wii U, sought to recapture the core gamer market with additional features atop the Wii. The Wii U was released 🌞 in 2012, and Nintendo continued to sell both units through the following year. The Wii was formally discontinued in October 🌞 2013, though Nintendo continued to produce and market the Wii Mini through 2024, and offered a subset of the Wii's 🌞 online services through 2024.
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