Nintendo have released their financial earnings statement for the last quarter, and it now appears to be clear why they are more interested in maintaining support for the 3DS in the long run over the Wii U, which has been unceremoniously dropped by them. Sales of the Nintendo 3DS have hit 61.57 million units worldwide, with software sales of retail games at 293.4 million- basically, the 3DS is the system that Nintendo fans are interested in buying, and it is the system that they are interested in buying games for.
The Wii U fares less well. Its worldwide sales are at 13.36 million units, which is just a little over a fifth of the 3DS’s worldwide total, with software sales at 92.35 million units. The shift in Nintendo’s focus is reflected in their forecast for both systems, too- for FY 2016-17, Nintendo expects to sell 6 million 3DS units globally, selling an additional 55 million games, while with the Wii U, Nintendo expects to sell only 0.8 million (that’s 800,000 Wii U systems), selling only 14 million games.
The totals for the 3DS are doubtless bolstered by the impending release of Pokemon Sun/Moon, which are less than a month away from release, and which promise to be among the biggest game releases of this year.