Something (I think) very cool about the Wii is that it was designed to use very little power so that you can leave it on 24 hours a day, enabling it to download updates and demos when you’re not using it. According to Kotaku, the power consumption breaks down thusly:
Wii:
- In Standby Mode: 10w
- Idle @ Wii menu: 17w
- Running a Wii Game (Test with Zelda / Trauma Center) in 480i: 17w
[…]
XBOX 360:
- In Standby Mode: 2w
- Idle @ Dashboard: ~140w
- Running a Game: ~160w
- Playing a DVD: ~110w
Allowing for 3 hours of play a day, with either console left in standby for the other 21 hours, that means the Wii uses 261 watts while the 360 uses 522 watts, or exactly twice the power the Wii uses.