Video: Wii Sports – What Makes It Iconic?

Wii Sports has a heck of a legacy behind it. Packaged with the Wii console at launch, it’s the best-selling single-platform game of all time, as well as the fourth best-selling game ever, behind only Tetris, Gran Theft Auto V, and Minecraft. Wrap your head around that.

It’s no surprise, really. Being included with Nintendo’s second-best-selling home console of all time (the Switch only overtook it last year), the Wii has shifted more than 100 million units in its lifetime. And if someone had a Wii, it was likely that they also had Wii Sports. The universality of Wii Sports was unstoppable. Motion controls certainly had their… off moments, but Wii Sports embraced the ease of swinging a Wii Remote around. You could play it, your parents could play it, your grandparents could probably thrash you at bowling — everyone could play it. It embraced Nintendo’s family-friendly philosophy better than almost anything else before it.

We’ve had a sequel in Wii Sports Resort, but we now have a brand new successor on a new console in the form of Nintendo Switch Sports — and it’s out this week! In the build-up to the new game’s release, the lovely Alex, Zion, and Felix sat down with a cuppa (we assume) to discuss just what made Wii Sports so iconic and why so many people remember it so fondly. They share memories, talk about the Mii Maker, and assess its impact on the game industry.

This collection of five sports games changed motion controls and family gaming for the better, and everyone has their favourites. You can vote in our poll below to let us know what yours are — after you check out the video of course. Then, share your memories of Wii Sports in the comments below and on YouTube!