They had 80 Million in the end.. PS3 looked like a flop for a very long time.
WiiU
might sell 8 million units total in America by year five. PS3 by year five was around 20 million units in America.
The last directly comparable console in unit sales to WiiU is the Dreamcast. But even that system had a higher start.
I love my Nintendo. I've put more hours into Smash, Kart, and Zelda than almost any series out there... barring Bioware titles since KotOR at least, but I can see the writing on the wall. Some of the systems wares will be looked back on fondly, but WiiU itself will only really be mentioned in our circles. It's not a system that's going to last.
Hell they might still be producing the system when the next comes out, taking it to year five, but I see no way for it to be their main system with a userbase this low. Smash will sell a fourth of Brawl, and half of Melee. Kart isn't likely to hit 15% of Kart Wii, or 60% of Double Dash. 3D World won't hit Sunshine numbers, NSMBU definitely won't hit 20% of Wii's numbers.
In an era where even Nintendo budgets skyrocket, selling that little amount of software (with almost no 3rd party royalties coming in), means you've got a system not mean to last for long. GBA was a legitimate monster, and they still launched a successor at year four.
Again if this was Sony or MS, the system would have been all but shelved by now. Look at Vita. Presence in the USA was almost completely nonexistent by the end of year one.