The latest video game craze is the release of Nintendo’s Wii Fit, a game focusing on exercise and fitness. First released in Japan in December, the Wii Fit became available in the US last week on May 21st, which caused a surge in the searches for the game. During the 1st week of the release, searches for ‘Wii Fit’ increased 288% as compared to the previous week. Searchers were seeking content about the Wii Fit, most commonly looking for the release date, prices, pre-order information and reviews.

The Nintendo website received 25% of the search traffic from ‘wii fit’, followed by Wikipedia and YouTube; for those looking for facts and video demonstrations. As with the Wii console, the demand for the game outstrips the supply, so retailers offering the ability to pre-order the game were also popular websites to receive traffic from the searches for the 4 weeks ending May 24, 2008.