A Single Wii U Finds a Buyer in 2023

A Nostalgic Purchase: The Wii U Finds a New Home In 2023

While the Wii U might not be remembered as Nintendo's crowning achievement, it has recently made a nostalgic comeback. In an unexpected twist of events, a brand new Wii U found its way from a store shelf into a customer's shopping cart in 2023, as if we were reliving the console's heyday in 2013 all over again.

The Legacy of the Wii U

Released in 2012 as a sequel to the hugely successful Wii console, the Wii U never quite managed to replicate its predecessor's success. Despite its innovative tablet controller, the Wii U fell short in sales compared to the Wii, which still stands as one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time.

The underwhelming performance of the Wii U led Nintendo to shift its focus to the Switch in 2017. The Switch exceeded the Wii U's lifetime sales within its first year, relegating the Wii U to a footnote in Nintendo's history. However, the recent purchase of a new Wii U console breathes new life into its legacy.

A Rare Occurrence in Retail

This surprising statistic comes courtesy of Circana's executive director, Mat Piscatella. They reported that a brand new Wii U was sold in the United States in September, the first such sale since May 2022.

Circana, a company specializing in tracking individual store level sales data, confirmed that this Wii U wasn't a pre-loved model from a second-hand store. Instead, it was a sealed, brand new console that had been waiting for a decade to find a home.

The Mystery of the Forgotten Consoles

How did this happen? The exact circumstances remain a mystery, but previous retail workers suggest that this is not as unusual as it may seem. Old stock can often get lost in the depths of store back rooms, or perhaps this Wii U had been gathering dust on a shelf in a remote store for the past decade until a nostalgic gamer decided to give it a new lease of life.

Interestingly, Piscatella also reported that three new PS Vitas found owners in November 2021. It's heartwarming to know that these forgotten consoles, sealed in their boxes and left in storage rooms or abandoned electronics stores, are finding their way to gamers' homes.

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