Nintendo Wii crosses 100 million mark in lifetime sales

Somewhat lost in the buzz about the historic opening day for Grand Theft Auto V and the upcoming Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles is news about Nintendo's original Wii console.

The motion control video gaming pioneer has broken the 100 million mark in lifetime worldwide sales, becoming only the third video game console to ever reach such a lofty number (not counting handhelds).

Also worth note is the fact that the Wii still has an outside chance to surpass the lifetime sales of the original PlayStation console and move into second place all time.

All three consoles of this most recent video game generation sit among the top five best-selling consoles in the video game industry history. Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 sit at a distant neck-and-neck for the top selling console of that same generation.

The Xbox 360 still has a shot to overcome the Wii's total lifetime sales in the United States while the PlayStation 3 might eventually top the Wii's lifetime sales in Europe, all depending on how long those consoles continue to be supported as the next generation units are introduced.

Here is a list of the top ten best-selling video game consoles of all time as of this writing. Where does your all-time favorite rank?

1. PlayStation 2 (2000, Sony) - 155 million worldwide

2. PlayStation (1994, Sony) - 102.49 million worldwide

3. Wii (2006, Nintendo) - 100.04 million worldwide

4. PlayStation 3 (2006, Sony) - 79.2 million worldwide

5. Xbox 360 (2005, Microsoft) - 78.4 million worldwide

6. Famicom/NES (1983, Nintendo) - 61.91 million worldwide

7. Super Famicom/SNES (1990, Nintendo) - 49.10 million worldwide

8. Genesis/Mega Drive (1988, Sega) - 40 million worldwide

9. Nintendo 64 (1996, Nintendo) - 32.93 million worldwide

10. Atari 2600 (1977, Atari) - 30 million worldwide