How many copies has Wii Sports sold?

How to get close to this number

Start from the console and note the caveat, because here they are the same thing. The platform sold around a hundred million units, and this game shipped in the box in most territories — so the sales figure is essentially the console figure minus the markets where it was sold separately. The caveat is not a footnote; it is the entire explanation of the number.

That is exactly why bundled games distort sales rankings. A title included with the hardware is not chosen by the buyer, so its unit count measures console adoption rather than the game's appeal. Comparing a bundled title against a game people paid for separately is comparing two different things, and this is the most extreme example in the medium.

Which does not mean it was unimportant — the opposite. It was the demonstration that made the console comprehensible to people who had never played a video game, and it did more to widen the medium's audience than almost any title before it. The sales figure is misleading as a measure of popularity and accurate as a measure of reach.