Consoles jumped from arcades to homes, but it wasn't all good news. When video games stopped working with coins, players had to decide what consoles to buy. With a limited budget, the player had to decide for the first time which system to buy, and, therefore, his choice condemned him to never be able to enjoy an exclusive title from the competition. It also started console waras well as peer pressure. Buying the right console could sometimes even be a mistake, since it condemned you to not integrate with your friends. And let's not talk about buying a console doomed to failure. In this post we will review the most successful consoles of all time. Those who have beaten sales records. And, also as a consolation prize, we will remember some of those who tried, but fell by the wayside.
Ranking: the Top 10 most successful consoles in history
Nintendo and Sony lead the ranking of the most successful consoles of all time. Knowing that the original PlayStation was born out of a disagreement between Sony and Nintendo, imagine for a moment what this list could be if these two companies had actually gone ahead with their joint project. We would probably be facing a much different scenario, with a rather dangerous monopoly. This is how he remains top 10 as of the publication date of this article. We will tell you more details a little later:
- PlayStation 2
- Nintendo DS
- Game Boy
- PlayStation 4
- Playstation
- Nintendo Switch
- Nintendo Wii
- PlayStation 3
- Xbox 360
- Game Boy Advance
How many units did each sell?
Knowing the list, let's go to the sauce: How many millions did each of these successful proposals raise?
PlayStation 2 – 157,68 million
The console best seller of all time was the PlayStation 2. He had it pretty easy. His predecessor had already broken all records. Nintendo returned to the fray after being humiliated a few years earlier, but they made a huge mistake again: the Mini DVDs. The Game Cube was objectively a better console than the PS2, but it still had limitations due to the physical format they chose, once again putting it on a platter for Sony. On the other hand, developers preferred programming for the PlayStation 2, which also became the game console with the most published titles in history: about 2.500.
Nintendo DS – 154,88 million
We are not going to tell you anything new if we tell you that what Nintendo is really good at is manufacturing portable consoles. Nintendo DS surpassed the Game Boy feat. Interestingly, the first journalists who met the console at E3 anticipated that it would be a failure. However, it was logical to think so. Sony had already eaten Nintendo's cake twice, and the future PSP was substantially more powerful than the DS. It was absurd to think that Nintendo's would come to be positioned above.
However, the DS had a couple of tricks up its sleeve. His price was $100 more affordable than the Sony. The console was addressed to a more childish public. And the way to play was a lot more intuitive, a path that they would continue with the Wii.
Game Boy – 118,69 million
Fourteen years the Game Boy was on sale in total, which started selling in 1989. It was a simple console, with cartridges and a contrast that left a lot to be desired. sold millions of Tetris and it caused many software engineers to rack their brains trying to code for it. Nearing the end of her maturity stage, in 1996, the Pocket was introduced, coinciding with the release of a pocket monster hunting game in Japan. A couple of years later, what seemed like a dying console would be resurrected by the success of Game Freak, which encouraged them to release the Game Boy Color and delay the release of the Game Boy Advance a bit longer.
PlayStation 4 – 116 million
With a generation that started in 2013 and isn't over yet, the PS4 is the fourth best selling console of the story at the moment. And that they said that it had fallen short of power in the middle of the cycle —remember that they released the PS4 Pro and Microsoft also made a similar movement with its Xbox. already based on one x86-64 architecture computer, the AMD Jaguar that was hidden under the chassis of this console was a piece of cake for the developers, and began to receive titles with great graphic quality since its inception.
PS5 stock issues are extending the life of PS4, even making titles that were not intended for this console arrive. In any case, if you have a PS4, you have a treasure.
PlayStation – 104,25 million
As we discussed a few lines above, PlayStation was born from a break between Nintendo and Sony at the end of the 80s. Nintendo decided to cut with them when they saw that they got up to their beards with the royalties derived from CD-ROMs. oh mamma mia, Nintendo. What you missed.
For Sony, entering the console market was a 'come, vidi, vici'. They reached unknown terrain and They conquered the market in a sudden way. Only Gran Turismo it sold more than 11 million copies. His cars looked in the rearview mirror at a Nintendo 64, with some obsolete cartridges that were left in the ditch and that barely sold 36 million consoles.
Nintendo Switch – 103,54 million
It seemed that Nintendo had made another Wii U. It also came out with a most bland catalogue. But as we said before, no one beats Nintendo by making handheld consoles. Its launch was timid, but before its 6th birthday, this Nintendo hybrid is at its best. To the point that it is known for certain thatand will eventually reach Nintendo DS, since it continues to have an upward sales progression. The Switch has sold faster than the Wii, PS4 and PS2. With recent releases such as the Oled version, we have no doubt that there is a switch for a while.
Nintendo Wii – 101 million
It was going to be called 'Revolution', but they hit the nail on the head with the naming calling it 'Wii'. After two consecutive failures, Nintendo focused on what in marketing is called 'moment of use'. Wii did not have better graphics than its competition. He did not even need it. It was designed so that getting in front of the screen become a fun activity for the whole family. A innovative bet to which many of us have great affection.
PlayStation 3 – 87,4 million and Xbox 360 – 85,8 million
La seventh generation of game consoles was for the Wii, yes. But the real comforters were split between the PS3 and Xbox 360. The rivalry was very good in this generation, and although it seems that there was a technical draw Between both consoles, the data segmented by country gave the winner to one or the other depending on the region. Still, it was a very interesting time in the video game industry.
Game Boy Advance – 81.8 million
the gba It did not repeat the success of the Game Boy. Still, she had a lot good sales. Those of us who were little at that time always had the thorn in us that Nintendo would not come up with the perfect console under the name 'Game Boy Advance'. The original Advance had a perfect design. In fact, all modern handheld consoles are very similar in design to this model. However, it repeated mistakes of the traditional Game Boy, with a screen that did not look good when have no backlight —which they knew how to do perfectly because they released a Game Boy Light in Japan years before.
La Game Boy Advance SP It fixed that problem, but it wasn't as ergonomic. And the Micro arrived very late, although it was not an interesting product either. Still, it was great to play on a laptop games released just a decade earlier on home consoles like Super Mario World.
What were some of the biggest failures?
In the purest 'Heroes & Zeros' style, here is another slightly humbler list, with some of the consoles that didn't quite materialize on the market. The list could be endless, but we have kept some of the great proposals that sadly they failed in its attempt to dominate the market:
- Nintendo GameCube – #20 – 21,74 million
- PlayStation Vita – #22 – 16 million
- Nintendo Wii U – #23 – 13,56 million
- SEGA Dreamcast – #27 – 10 million
- SEGA Saturn – #29 – 9,26 million
They are not the only ones. The SEGA Game Gear, which was the laptop with which they tried to face the Game Boy sold 16 times less units than the Nintendo. In 1997, when Nintendo grew and released new versions of its laptop thanks to the hit they hit with Pokémon, SEGA bowed its head and withdrew its console from the market.