Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Blanche Betten, a 76-year-old retired restaurant owner, hammered Bob Warner, 85, with a flurry of punches, sending the World War II and Korean War veteran sprawling to the ground.

“Again, again, again,” onlooker Rosa Villanueva, 61, shouted at the Perris Hill Senior Center as Warner tried to regain his footing.

The San Bernardino, California, seniors weren’t fighting in a real ring. They were boxing on Nintendo Co.’s Wii video-game console as part of a public-health class to encourage physical activity. They’re among a growing number of former non-gamers who have taken up the Wii and made it the dominant player in the $21 billion U.S. video-game industry.

“I don’t know of any other digital technology today that offers grandparents and grandkids an avenue to play together or connect,” said Mike Hickey, a video-game analyst at Janco Partners in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Last year, 26 percent of people over the age of 50 played video games, up from 9 percent in 1999, according to the Entertainment Software Association, a Washington-based trade group. The figure is expected to rise because of the games’ growing popularity with seniors, the association said.

In San Bernardino County, 350 people aged 58 to 85 have participated in six-week fitness classes at senior centers since July, underscoring how the Wii has expanded the market for Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo.

U.S. Sales

U.S. retailers have sold 17.6 million Wii players since the console was introduced in 2006, according to research firm NPD Group Inc. The 10.2 million purchased in 2008 exceeded the combined total for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3. Five of the top 10 selling games in December were for the Wii, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said.

“The holiday sales rush drained supplies in many places and we can’t guarantee that every location you visit will have Wiis in stock,” said Amber McCollom, a Nintendo spokeswoman in New York.

“Wii Fit,” a $90 game that includes a balance board for yoga and other exercises, was the No. 3 seller in the U.S. in December. Customers have bought 4.53 million copies since it was introduced last year, according to NPD. “Wii Sports,” a title with boxing, bowling and tennis, has sold more than three times as many because it’s included with every console.

Wii Research

Soaring Wii sales haven’t helped Nintendo stock. It fell 50 yen to 33,100 yen today in Tokyo. The shares declined 50 percent in 2008 after doubling in each of the prior two years. In October, Nintendo cut its full-year profit forecast and dividend as the strong yen eroded the value of its exports.

Researchers and senior-center operators say waving the Wii’s motion-activated joystick to throw virtual punches or swim laps may improve health.

“If it does show real benefit it could be a huge asset for rehabilitation and increasing physical activity,” said Stacy Fritz, director of the Rehabilitation Laboratory at the University of South Carolina, which is studying whether the Wii can help stroke victims.

Stroke sufferers in Fritz’s study, the recipient of a $200,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, come in four days a week for an hour. She has noted positive results in mobility using the “Wii Fit” balance board, though she cautioned the two-year study won’t be done until July 2010.

New Grants

“There are definitely changes that we notice,” Fritz said. “One gentleman was walking with a cane when he came in, but by the end of the six weeks he was able to walk out on his own.”

The foundation’s Health Games Research program today announced it is seeking applications for $2 million in grants to examine the health benefits of video games or ways they can be designed better to promote physical activity.

Mayo Clinic researchers endorsed the use of movement- oriented video games to reduce childhood obesity in a 2006 study in the journal Pediatrics.

Xrtainment Zone, a Redlands, California-based fitness center built around video games that require physical activity, is developing a study with Loma Linda University School of Public Health on the Wii’s benefits for seniors.

Joel Peterson, the center’s co-founder, created an exercise regimen like the one used in San Bernardino, incorporating the Wii along with other traditional exercises. Games such as boxing and swimming are used for a cardiovascular portion of the class, while stretching and light weights are done in other segments.

Real Exercise

Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise, said that while the Wii can benefit seniors returning to physical activity, traditional exercise produces better results.

“You’re going to get much greater physical-fitness benefit from the real activity,” Bryant said.

Health advocates hope seniors using the Wii can replicate the success Konami Corp.’s “Dance, Dance Revolution” had in reducing childhood obesity, as reported in the 2006 Mayo Clinic study. That game, also available for the Wii, requires players to jump on certain spaces to match cues from the screen. West Virginia is putting versions in its 765 public schools.

San Bernardino public-health worker Erin Haugh, 27, incorporated games such as boxing and track and field from “Wii Olympics” in a walking program she has led for about two years.

The arm-waving raises the seniors’ heart rates and has made the classes more popular, Haugh said.

“My goal is to keep it interesting,” Haugh said in an interview. “They are more likely to keep going waving their arms than if I was standing up there telling them to do it.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 15, 2009 20:24 EST