Near the beginning of Nintendo's E3 2010 press conference, NoA President Reggie Fils-Aime rattled off some fairly surprising sales statistics regarding the Wii. Among them, that Wii holds the record for most units of any game system ever sold in a single month, and that Wii has sold more software in its first four years than any other game system has in the same span of time.

In a June 16th Analyst Q & A session, data was revealed indicating that the Wii continues to widen the sales gap between itself and its competitors. Check out the data in handy chart form:

You'll notice that the chart includes a system that many gamers don't think much about these days: the PlayStation 2. PlayStation 2 remains the best selling game system of all time (more than 140 million units sold world wide), though the Nintendo DS (over 129 million systems sold worldwide) will likely take that crown later this year.

The chart indicates that, when comparing the first four years of sales for each system, Wii actually outsold the PlayStation 2. The always outspoken Fils-Aime puts it this way:

"As you can see, the PS2 is the only other meaningful competitor."

"But after last year’s record holiday, Wii has now outsold the PS2 by nearly five million systems at the same point in its life cycle."

"And of course, the other current home platforms are losing ground even more quickly."

Those may be fighting words, but the data is on Nintendo's side. In the last six months, Wii has sold more units than the Xbox 360 and the PS3 combined.

The hardcore gaming community often discounts Nintendo's current industry dominance, insisting that the comparatively underpowered Wii and its collection of kid-focused software just can't compete with offerings from Sony and Microsoft.

Nintendo, I suspect, would beg to differ.

Ranters, are you surprised by the extent of Nintedo's sales lead over Sony and Microsoft? What is your take on Nintendo's success?

Source: Nintendo, Edge