Finest-selling consoles of all time

Within the fierce fires of battle that’s every era of the console wars , it’s the system with essentially the most gross sales that followers can prop up because the true winner. One might argue better games or options make a console better than the remaining, however on the finish of the day, the console that bought essentially the most is the one which shall be remembered. In any case, that is what these firms need most of all, proper? They could faux it is all for the love of the sport, however actually they only need to see these numbers get bigger and bigger .

You may assume that, as gaming will get extra widespread over time, the latest consoles will at all times outsell the previous ones. That is generally true, however there are a handful of retro consoles that have been in the marketplace for therefore lengthy, or have been such a phenomenon on the time, that their locations close to the highest of the record might by no means be threatened. Let us take a look at the laborious numbers and see which consoles, as of this second in time, are the best-selling of all time. Odds are you’ll have owned a number of of those!

1 PlayStation 2

Sport console and DVD participant

Sony

The PS2 was THE console to have within the early 2000s. Sony needed to make the PS1 extra interesting by permitting it to play CDs, however struck gold by together with DVD performance within the PS2. That may sound apparent right this moment since something with a disc drive can play mainly something disc-shaped, however this wasn’t the case when the PS2 got here round. DVD gamers themselves have been nonetheless model new, and the Xbox and GameCube could not play them both. The ace within the gap, nevertheless, was that the PS2 was one way or the other cheaper than most devoted DVD gamers. Children all around the world abruptly had the proper promoting level to get their mother and father to spend money on the console.

The final formally reported gross sales numbers put the PS2 at 155 million as of 2012, nevertheless, former CEO Jim Ryan claimed on a podcast in 2024 that it had bought 160 million at this level.

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2 Nintendo DS

It simply prints cash

Nintendo

Go away it to Nintendo to desert the tried and true handheld design it itself pioneered and swing for the fences with the DS. I imply, a handheld with two screens? How would that even work? Properly, it seems it labored just a little too effectively as a result of this little console has outsold another Nintendo {hardware} earlier than or after. The key sauce, and factor Nintendo is so good at, is advertising and marketing its merchandise to all ages. Video games like Mind Age and Animal Crossing, in addition to the intuitive contact display screen controls, broadened the enchantment to avid gamers younger and previous.

The Nintendo DS fell simply shy of the number one spot promoting 154.02 million items as of 2021.

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3 Nintendo Swap

It would crack the highest spot

The one present system to even crack the highest 10 is the Nintendo Swap. After the bomb that was the WiiU (which bought a mere 13.5 million items), Nintendo wanted to open its bag of methods and pull out a miracle. The Swap turned out to be that after which some because of the ingenious thought of mixing a house console and a handheld. Yeah, it is manner underpowered in comparison with even the PS4, however you possibly can’t argue with the software program lineup and value. Even seven years into its lifecycle the Swap continues to be promoting at a aggressive tempo to the PS5. The one query now could be simply how far it may possibly go earlier than the Swap 2 comes and cuts off present Swap gross sales.

As of this yr, the Nintendo Swap has bought 143.4 million items and continues to be rising.

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4 Sport Boy + Sport Boy Shade

The little handheld that would

Nintendo

You may assume present console generations are lengthy, however the Sport Boy and Sport Boy Shade have been round for over 10 years earlier than the GBA got here out. Nintendo bundles these gross sales numbers collectively, which I feel is honest for the reason that Shade is not any extra highly effective, does not run any video games the OG cannot, and simply provides colour. The Sport Boy was the primary handheld that confirmed that you can actually get console-level experiences on the go. Different firms have tried to compete on this area, however up till the Steam Deck and different handheld PCs, nothing has ever managed to match the phenomenon that was the Sport Boy.

Final official numbers put Sport Boy gross sales at 118.6 million.

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5 PlayStation 4

No competitors

PlayStation could not have wished for a greater setup for the PS4 launch. The Xbox One was getting dragged via the streets for its DRM, bundled Kinnect, and basic anti-consumer advertising and marketing. All of the PS4 actually wanted to do was let Xbox hold itself, however it took it a step additional by coming in cheaper and higher efficiency on many video games. From there, a era of excellent exclusives put Xbox in a gap so deep it nonetheless hasn’t recovered from and gave the PS5 sufficient momentum to already hit quantity 14 on the record of best-selling consoles with loads of time to develop.

PS4 are nonetheless on the market, however the newest gross sales knowledge states it has bought 117.2 million.

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