The Wii U sold 13 million units — against a target of 100 million

The Wii U, released in November 2012, was Nintendo's follow-up to the phenomenally successful Wii, which had sold over 101 million units. The Wii U's key innovation was the GamePad — a controller with a 6.2-inch touchscreen that could display games independently of the TV. Nintendo expected to match the Wii's success, projecting 100 million lifetime sales.

The Wii U sold only 13.56 million units, making it Nintendo's worst-selling home console by a wide margin. The problems were numerous: the GamePad was expensive to manufacture, its purpose was unclear to consumers, and the launch lineup was thin. Many consumers believed the GamePad was a tablet accessory for the existing Wii, not a new console. Third-party developers abandoned the platform early — EA, Bethesda, and Ubisoft all reduced or stopped support within the first year.

Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay cut in 2014 to take responsibility for the poor performance. The company posted cumulative operating losses on the Wii U of ¥46.6 billion. The console was discontinued in January 2017 after just over four years on the market. Its failure directly shaped the development of the Nintendo Switch, which launched two months later with a clear proposition — a hybrid console you could take anywhere.