Number of Nintendo Mii characters in Europe now exceeds the population of France, the United Kingdom and Italy

9th December 2011 – 2011 research from Nintendo of Europe has revealed that the total number of Mii characters created by players across Europe on Wii now exceeds 73.2 million* – more than the populations of France, the United Kingdom and Italy or more than Spain and The Netherlands combined. A Mii is an individual, personalised character created to play games on Wii and more recently on Nintendo 3DS**.

The global Mii population is a staggering 213.8 million, meaning that if all the Mii characters were to form a country it would have the fifth largest population in the world and would sit above Brazil, Nigeria and Pakistan. The European Mii population is so large that if it was a country of its own it would be the second largest country in Europe after Germany***. Since its launch in 2006, 89.36 million Wii consoles have been sold across the globe****.

Europe’s Mii population is split almost equally between the genders – 37.2 million male versus 36.1 million female characters. Indeed, in several instances, females are the predominant Mii gender - the UK, Spain and the Netherlands have a greater number of female than male Mii characters, at 51%, 52% and 51% females respectively.

Now, with the recent launch of the automated Mii Maker application on Nintendo 3DS, Europe’s Mii population is expected to grow even larger. Mii Maker allows you to create Mii characters even more easily. You simply use the Nintendo 3DS camera to take a picture of yourself or a friend and a new Mii character is automatically created to look just like you. You can also import Mii characters from your Wii console using an SD Memory Card. Saving Mii characters to an SD Memory Card from Nintendo 3DS enables it to be used just like a digital photo would.

Laurent Fischer, Managing Director, Marketing & PR at Nintendo of Europe, comments: “Our research shows that Europeans clearly enjoy playing with their Mii characters. With Mii Maker and StreetPass Mii Plaza features on Nintendo 3DS, more people will be able to enjoy the experience of creating and sharing their own Mii characters.”

*Figure based on Nintendo data which was gathered in the field investigations in six European countries; France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, UK.

** Data excludes Mii characters created on Nintendo 3DS.

*** Figure based on Nintendo data which was gathered in the field investigations from the top ten global markets; USA, Japan, Europe (as above), Australia, Korea.

**** Global lifetime sales by Nintendo as of the end of September 2011.

N.B. Population data sourced from local country census reporting.