Best-Selling Video Game Consoles

I guess my age is apparent. The 3 I missed were from 2011, 2012, and 2013. Never even heard of the Vita, and I think the only time I heard of Wii U was the last time I took this quiz- but I had forgotten about it since then.

Yeah, never heard of a Vita either, but it does seem important, judging by those caps.

It really isn't important. At all.

The Vita's a good little handheld and it's too bad it never went anywhere outside of Japan. Wonderful way to play PSX/PSP titles and ports of graphically simple PS2-4 titles, and it streams from PS4.

Can be had cheap nowadays, and I recommend it.

My age is apparent, too. First time I took it I got three - Atari, Sega, and Nintendo. My children grew up and bought their own after those. (I should have gotten Wii, though. Our daughter bought us a Wii which is only used for Wii Fit or when the grandkids visit.)

PS Vita is basically just a thinner version of the PSP I think. Cracking little system.

its a shame nobody knows the vita, i live in the us and had one

lol, i knew about the vita, but still missed it

Surely GameBoy Color should be on this list !

@DeadJuice6M, the GameBoy Color was an evolutionary adaptation of the GameBoy, and maintained backwards (and for the most part, forward) compatibility with the original, meaning that the same game cartridges could be used in both. The GBA, on the other hand, was as different from them as SNES was from the original NES, both in capacity and processing, and truly was a separate console.

As enormously successful as the original GameBoy was there was big incentive for Nintendo to make future GameBoys backwards-compatible. The GameBoy Color was 99 or 100% backward compatible, and wasn't that big of a depature. Same goes for the Game Boy Pocket. Further, the original GameBoy could play many games that were made for the GameBoy Color (but not all). The systems were very close in design. Nintendo wanted to tweak it a little bit, add color to the boring green screen since all the other handhelds had color, but they didn't want to make any drastic changes because the original so sooooo successful and they did not want to abandon that market.

The GameBoy Advance was also backward compatible and could play many GB and GB Color games, but it was much much more powerful than the original GameBoy. The GB and GB Color could not play ANY GB Advance games. It was a significant departure in hardware, and therefore classified as a separate system.

And what exactly is the "reliable source" that you are referring to? Your say so? If you had played them all you would clearly know that the only difference between game boy and GBC is the color. Everything else is almost exactly the same.

You could really say the same thing about the GBA, except for the two shoulder buttons. But that is very clearly a separate console.

Here I am, commenting on a six-year-old comment... I really must have better things to do

The difference is if you put a GBA cartridge into a Game Boy it won't work. If you put a Game Boy Color cartridge into a Game Boy then it will work (albeit in black and white).

100%

Thank you for updating.

Got everything except for TurboGrafx-16.

Can you please accept Turbo Graphics 16?

SMS for Sega Master System please :)

That would be Neptunia's fault, isn't it? Nice.

missed a lot of the hand helds

Sega Genesis is known as Sega Megadrive in the world, please accept that name http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Mega_Drive

If you're going to accept Mega Drive then maybe you should also accept Famicon and Super Famicon for NES and SNES? Those were the original Japanese names.

Also, which Atari is that? Is it all Atari systems lumped together? I think the 2600 sold by far the best, but there was also the 7800, 5200, XE, and several systems before the 2600 that were not as popular.

It was Famicom (Family Computer).

And maybe SMS for Sega Master System? I've probably commented this before.

I got everything except for the TurboGrafx-16. I even have one, but I never would have guessed it to be on there.

I got it but that surprised me, too. I thought that thing barely sold at all. I would have guessed Neo Geo or Jaguar before TurboGrafx. Though the TurboExpress was awesome for the day... a 16-bit handheld released at around the same time as the original GameBoy. It blew the GB away in terms of technology (as did the Lynx and GameGear) but never really caught on.

Still, I never knew anyone who had either Turbo system. I played it only when I went to Toys R Us.

before any ubernerds try to correct me I'm aware that the TurboGraphx had two 8-bit processors running in parallel and was therefore technically not a true 16-bit system, even though it was advertised as such.

Guess I was right to pass on getting a Colecovision in 1982. Great graphics for the time, but the unit and every cartridge for it were obsolete within a couple years.

Got all but TurboGrafx-16. Guess I have some reading to do on this vintage console...

Handhelds are still consoles.

Handhelds are consoles, just not HOME consoles. There is no need for a change.

original quiz I like it

How could I forget the Dreamcast?! Good times...

For anyone interested, there's a book called Console Wars, and it really details the battle between Sega and Nintendo during the mid 80s-early 90s. It really details what happened, and it seems a number of commentors have misinformed ideas of what happened between the Master System, NES, Genesis, SNES, Saturn, and Playstation.

Like what? I used to work in the industry, have gone to CES and E3, read all the dailies back then and knew pretty much everything about whatever was going on. What information here do you think was wrong?

Reading the synopsis on Amazon, it's obvious the book is trying very hard to tell a certain type of story. One where Sega is the good guy and "scrappy underdog" and Nintendo is the bad guy, and one where Sega revolutionized the industry and won the battle. None of that is really true so I would guess that the book sacrifices truth for the sake of telling the story that it wants to tell, and maybe it's the people who have read it that have been misled.

Nintendo undoubtedly dominated the entire video game market, controlling about 90% of it. With good marketing, Sega eventually took over 50% during the time of the Genesis. Internal conflict between Sega of Japan and Sega of America led to the failure of the Saturn and Dreamcast. The book ends as the Saturn is released. It follows the story of the CEO of SOA. It had nothing to do with rushing consoles, SOJ just didn't cooperate. SOA attempted to work WITH Sony on the Playstation, but that was shut down by SOJ. It wasn't really the consoles themselves that were the problem.

I read through many of the reviews and it seems the author of the book spoke with nobody really at Nintendo, and spent a lot of time talking to the marketing guys at Sega of America. He also didn't speak to anyone at Sega of Japan. He makes up a whole bunch of crap to try and make the book read like a movie script because apparently he's trying to push it to be made into a movie, and therefore is also, as I guessed already, pushing hard for the narrative that I described above. So the book ends up with a myopic, heavily distorted, and very inaccurate and one-sided account of things. The Genesis dominated the 16-bit market for a long time because it made it there first. The SNES had much better technology, better games, more innovation, and more 3rd party support. Genesis was able to hold on for a while because of Sega's very slick, clever, and often downright dishonest marketing... but eventually they lost the 16-bit wars.

They got to market second with the SMS and even though it was technologically superior, it lost to the NES. So they were sure to get to the 16-bit market first, but they failed to realize the true reason the NES prevailed was because of better games and support. The Genesis had a TWO YEAR headstart on the SNES. Of course they were winning for a while. But they still had worse games. Eventually they lost due to this, not because of Sega of Japan. They learned the wrong lessons and doubled down on their strategy of being first to market with Dreamcast and Saturn... getting in even sooner, but even more unprepared and with less 3rd party support. Exactly. As. I. Said. Sega rushed Saturn out the door so they could beat Playstation (and did so just barely, by a month), and were 2 years ahead of Nintendo again. But the system wasn't ready, the games weren't ready. Saturn died and Sega abandoned it just 4 years after release, pissing off their fans.

So what did they do? Make the same mistake again, only worse. They pushed Dreamcast out as soon as they could, years ahead of the PS2, and this time THREE years before the GameCube. They could do this because they had so quickly scrapped the Saturn that nothing was stopping them from refocusing. But this is obviously not how you build a loyal fanbase. Saturn never caught on, in part because it was too soon on the heels of the previous generation of systems, and again because it lacked adequate support. Then of course it was absolutely crushed by the PS2 when it came out.

If the book fails to mention this very important aspect of how things unfolded, then it is a poor representation indeed. From all the reviews I read it seems like it's really kind of just an ego piece about Tom Kalinske at SOA Marketing. If an author relies too much on testimony from one person and those close to him he's going to end up with an incomplete picture.

and re: Sony, originally the PlayStation was going to be the SNES CD-ROM system, and Sony was working with Nintendo on that. But that was also shut down. Maybe Sony just doesn't play well with others, or maybe they realized that they could do better on their own, which eventually of course they did. If the author only talked to SOJ guys then you'd probably be saying it was the fault of SOA that the Saturn failed...

The partnership between Nintendo and Sony fell through because Nintendo opted for a different partner, Philips Electronics. Sega just flat out declined Sony. Games were just as good on the Genesis as they were on SNES. Sonic was the flagship game, and as they dubbed it, the "Mario-killer". Sega targeted an older audience, marketing Sonic as cool. Fast forward to the end of the Genesis lifespan, and you can look at the first Mortal Kombat, released for both SNES and Genesis, but Nintendo heavily censored their version. For a few years the Genesis dominated the top 10 games sold, holding 5-7 of the top 10. The games on the Genesis were good enough to compete with those made by Nintendo.

The book doesn't mention much about the Saturn and it's eventual failure because the book ends slightly before that, shortly after the weak release. It's hard to argue that it's an ego piece for Tom Kalinske, because the work he did, even before Sega, is just as good. Formerly high ranking at Mattel (eventually CEO), he brought Barbie to prominence. Regardless of what the book says, he does know how to turn a product into a dominant one, as long as the product itself is good enough. Clever marketing was part of that, but it also brought forward many things that are taken for granted in the game industry today. Sonic 2 was the first game to be released on a set date worldwide - Sonic 2sday. Except in Japan, where SOJ opted to release it on the Saturday prior. Sega created the first ratings board (in coordination with Nintendo, but Nintendo was originally against it).

There's no denying that SOJ takes much of the blame for Sega's collapse. Japan believed that no one outside Japan could make good video games - and that went for all companies, not just Sega. But since we're on the topic of Sega, SOJ was the creator, all SOA was was the marketer for the USA. Consoles, characters, and their games were developed in Japan. Early on, SOJ was slightly more open to making changes for SOA, but as SOA became more prominent, taking over the American market (the Japanese market still belonged totally to Nintendo, about 85%-15%) SOJ become less cooperative. SOA still had to market the stuff, but had less of a say in what that stuff was going to be.

The author did speak to far more than just Kalinske and a select few SOA members. That was the viewpoint of the story, so yes, I would expect a lot of dialogue between Harris (the author) and Kalinske, Nilsen, and Fornasier. However, there was a number of others, including many from Nintendo - Howard Lincoln, Peter Main, Bill White, Howard Phillips, Olaf Olafsson (Sony), Steve Race (Sony). There are some chapters of the book where it is told from a different view - Nintendo at times, where it's evident that that information could only have come from one of the Nintendo people. On the flaps of the cover, it says over 200 interviews with former Nintendo and Sega employees. He did his research, no doubt about that.

Little of this response is accurate. Check out reviews that were written at the time by multi-system magazines. Compare scores for Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and Mario 64 to Sonic, Sonic 2, or Sonic Adventure. Compare scores for Zelda: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, or Final Fantasy 3 (FFVI) to any Phantasy Star game. Compare MK2 or SF2 Turbo on SNES to MK2 or SF2 CE on Genesis. Sega's games were *not* just as good. They were worse. Yes, Sega had a different, less honest, probably superior approach to their advertising. I mentioned this. It's the only thing along with the 2 year head start that let them hang on as long as they did. Because the hardware and software were straight up worse. And it seems pretty obvious my description of the book as a Kalinske ego piece is accurate since it apparently turned you into a fanboy of his. The Genesis was failing in the US and had failed in Japan. It makes sense that SOJ wanted to move on. But they learned the wrong lessons.

I think my original series of comments that Symmetrik was replying to is lost now. Short version: Someone was asking what the Dreamcast and Saturn were, I think, and I explained everything that I went over again above.

@Symmetrik You may enjoy Game Dev Tycoon by indie studio Greenheart games -- it's a cute take on video game wars -- you play a game developer :)

Wow, some of these were hard. Great quiz though!

Aced 100%.

It was getting hard, but in the end I remembered TurboGrafx-16 as one if my random guesses.

Maybe accept PC Engine also as an answer to Turbografx-16?

Please accept "PS1" for PlayStation.

It just accepts "PS" now so there you go

Please accept Family Computer and Super Family Computer

Don't be silly.

I don't think this falls under "being silly" since "famicom" was the original name for it? Not to mention more than 1/3 of them ever sold were sold as "famicom"s (Japan) and perhaps even more.

...or maybe I'm biased since I'm from SK and the name more common here is famicom not nes

Can you accept "gcn" for gamecube because that's it's abbreviation?

I never understood why they didn't use "NGC"... it's the Nintendo Game Cube.... not the Game Cube Nintendo...

GCN sounds better, and it still makes sense.

Wrong on both accounts. You're just used to it.

all but gamecube!!! how did I forget that one?!

What!!! No Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device?

That title belongs to the Game and Watch.

It was a variant of the Game Boy Advance, so it's included in that number.

Please accept Famicon and Super Famicon for "Nintendo Entertainment System" and "Super Nintendo". Thank you.

If you ever decide to add those in, I'd also add SMS for Sega Master System.

cant believe Saturn sold more units than ps vita

2ds?

Lumped in with the 3DS. It's really not a separate console, just a redesign of the same thing.

Yeah, its the exact same console, just without one switch on the console.

15/16. Wish "Turbo Grpahics" was accepted.

Or at least "Turbo Graphics" :-)

No idea they were counting mobile so i was confused as hell XD

Shouldn't Vita be on the list. It sold 25.5m units.

Vita is on the list, but I have no idea where you got the 25.5 million number.

What? No Panasonic 3DO? I'm shocked!

Is a Nintendo switch a small stick used by mothers to beat their children and force them to go play outside?

No, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made that into a game for the Switch.

It would be nice if you accepted PC Engine for the NEC console (to not tell the answer)

Those Switch figures are already very out of date.

Actually, the Switch has now had the best worldwide first year sales in the history of gaming consoles. I can't find figures for the full first year, but given we've just gotten there, they are probably still coming. Nonetheless, the first 9 months (14.7 million) already saw it pass the first year sales of the Wii (13.7 million) and the PS4 (13.5 million). It also means it took less than 9 months to beat lifetime sales of the Wii U.

Explain why the Dreamcast was amazing in one word: Shenmue.

That game had a ton of hype but I got it and was very quickly bored.

I may have grown up in the 2000s but I am still a hardcore gamer.

26/27 The only one I missed was switch somehow...

I think PC Engine should be accepted for TurboGrafx-16.

I agree, I just knew this name before taking this quiz.

Yeah, I tried the "bad" consoles like the Jaguar, Sega Cd, etc... before landing on the Turbo-Graphx.

Please Update this

I kept typing Nintendo DS 3D! I couldn't remember what it was called, lol. That and the TurboGrafx were the only ones I missed.

waiting for PS5 and Xbox Series X to make the list :)

I think that going forward consoles will sell less and less well as the world turns more and more to mobile gaming and other forms of entertainment like tablet computers and smart TVs, in addition to the fact that entertainment markets continue to get increasingly fractured and niche. I doubt that any future system will ever outsell the PS2.

I heavily doubt that Mobile Games will overtake actual quality games.

... they already have. In 2020 mobile gaming worldwide brought in an estimated $80 billion. Console games only made $45 billion in the same year.

Interesting. I had the perception that the opposite was true, with console gaming becoming more popular, especially due to the pandemic when everyone was rushing to buy one. Now that I think about it though, I guess mobile gaming definitely has an advantage in affordability and access though, especially in developing countries.

Regardless of what's more popular in the next few years, I'm guessing that several decades from now, everything will be VR.

No but it was called the PC-Engine in Japan and Europe. There was also a handheld version called the Turbo Express, or PC Engine GT. It sold better in Japan than anywhere else.

The PC Engine GT was a very expensive console. It was called "the rolls royce of the handheld consoles". Actually, with it, we were able to play to all the game of the classic PC Engine, but without a TV. A bit like with the Sega Nomad for the Genesis.

Yeah.. but damn.. it came out only a year after the original Nintendo Game Boy and it SO completely outclassed the Game Boy in terms of graphics and technology. I really wanted one. But $250 for a handheld console was a lot in 1990.

Nintendo Switch Lite?

No.

Of all the things, I missed DS. I was playing one yesterday.

It might be a good idea to update this quiz sometime in the near future. Nintendo Switch sales have absolutely exploded since the beginning of the pandemic, and the Wikipedia article used as the source said they've sold 84.6 million copies now--just below PS3.

I'm curious to see where PS5 and Xbox Series X stand

Come now, some of us here had NES and one of those hand held little boxes with all included (screen, joystick..) & just the big stupid monkey throwing barrels. I even forget what that thing was called. You're spring chicken in comparison.

I have Wii console so I type it

Happy to get my 1 point. I'm afraid I will probably walk on the moon before I qualify for the Video Games badge.

Great quiz, but I think you mean video game system, not console, because while handheld games are indeed video game systems, they are not consoles.

What's the difference? Because in this instance, I doubt there really is one.

I remember when the PSX was being advertised for pre-release in Game and HMV here in the UK. It looked so modern and fancy, thought it was going to be the biggest thing ever... It wasn't...

wait it is called xbox seires x/s i thought it was xbox oneee s/x

Could you please accept One S / One X?

4 gets me better than 2.6% of others. I envy the 2.6%.

WARNING: If you like cheating read this comment. PS, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, NINTENDO DS, GAMEBOY, XBOX360, GAMEBOY ADVANCE, PSP, NINTENDO 3DS, NES, XBOX1, XBOX, SNES, NINTENDO 64, SEGA GENESIS, ATARI 2600, GAMECUBE, WIIU, PLAYSTATION VITA, SEGA MASTER SYSTEM, GAMEGEAR, TURBOGRAFX-16, SEGA SATURN, DREAMCAST, XBOX SERIES.