Although official figures haven’t been made available by Nintendo, estimates put January sales of its Wii U console below those of most other consoles' worst months.

According to CNET, an NPD source estimates that the Wii U sold a mere 57,000 Wii U units in the US in January, and Gamasutra has that number between 45,000 and 59,000 units.

In that same month, the Xbox 360 sold 281,000.

Gamasutra did some number crunching and the figures put the Wii U's sales at an abysmal 11,400 a week – far lower than the worst weeks weathered by the Xbox before the 360 came out (19,400), the PlayStation 3 (19,700), Xbox 360 (38,400), and even the Wii before the Wii U launched (11,800).

That's right – according to estimates, the Wii U has already had a worse month than the Wii ever did before its successor was available.

Speaking with Gamesbeat, Wedbush Securities managing director Michael Pachter said the future of the console was bleak.

“I think they misfired on the Wii U,” said Pachter.

“It’s just not that different from the other two [existing] consoles, and the gameplay isn’t as unique as the Wii.

“They made a mistake, it’s something they probably can’t recover from,” he added.

“Their handheld business can’t save them in the face of cannibalization from smartphones and tablets.”

Other analysts were unified in their belief that exclusive games could turn the console around.

“Great games, unique to the platform, would be a very good start,” said Baird analyst Colin Sebastian.

“Games, games, and more games,” said IDC research manager Lewis Ward.

“The relationship between key releases – primarily first-party titles – and hardware sales is especially clear in Nintendo’s case.

“The sooner they get titles like Pikmin 3 and Wii Fit U on the console side and Pokémon games and titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS side on store shelves, the better.”

Nintendo had hoped to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles by March 31, but recently revised that figure down to four million.

To date, it has sold just over three million Wii U consoles worldwide.