I vividly remember standing in line with my dad at a Super Target at 6 AM. We had breakfast, chatted with the people in front of us, and finally we got numbers. I was about 40 years old, and I lit up when an employee told the very long line and large crowd in the parking lot that there were only 50 Nintendo Wiis available on launch day, and that if you didn’t get a number, you expect one. day not to buy one.
Memories like that — that day for me in high school, or for you on Christmas Day, or whatever — are reasons why we fall in love with video games. Consoles and handhelds are gifts and purchases, yes, but they are much more than that for gamers. And in honor of the launch day stories and some cool data visualizations we’ve collected, we’ve listed the ten best-selling consoles below, with some quick fun facts and stats.
We’ve also included videos of what launch day looked like for each of them, just to relive the magic. Then you’ll find a breakdown of the top 25 by region, as well as a video showing the lifetime sales, with updates to the latest consoles – the Xbox series and the PlayStation 5 – so you can get an idea of how they compare, so way back to the previous iterations.
Let’s celebrate these historic pieces of technology and gaming history, and open a window into what the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s were like for gamers. Put on your nostalgic glasses and get ready to go back in time!
Sony PlayStation 2 (157+ million units)
- First release date: March 4, 2000
- Lifespan: 2000-2013 (13 years)
- Initial Price: $299
- End date: January 4, 2013
- Notable launch games: “Madden 2001”, “Moto GP”, “Midnight Club”, “FantaVision”, “Dynasty Warriors 2”, “Tekken Tag Tournament”, “Unreal Tournament”, “Ridge Racer V” and “TimeSplitters”
Nintendo DS (157+ million units)
- First release date: November 21, 2004
- Initial Price: $149.99
- Stop date: Unknown
- Notable Launch Games: “Feel the Magic: XY/XX”, “Madden 2005”, “Metroid Prime Hunters”, “Mr. Driller Drill Spirits”, “Pokemon Dash”, “Rayman DS”, “Spider-Man 2″, ” Super Mario 64 DS” and “WarioWare: Touched!”
Game Boy (118+ million units)
- First release date: April 21, 1989
- Lifespan: 1989-2003 (14 years)
- Initial Price: $89.99
- End date: March 23, 2003
- Notable launch games: “Alleyway”, “Baseball”, “Super Mario Land”, “Tennis”, “Tetris” and “Yakuman”. That’s it literally, that’s the list. They all are!
Sony PlayStation 4 (117+ million units and counting)
- First release date: November 15, 2013
- Lifespan: 2013-present
- Initial Price: $399.99
- Stop date: N/A
- Notable Launch Games: “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag”, “Battlefield 4”, “Call of Duty: Ghosts”, “FIFA 14”, “Flower”, “Killzone Shadow Fall”, “Knack”, “Madden 25”, and “Resogun”
Nintendo Switch (108+ million units and still)
- First release date: March 3, 2017
- Lifespan: 2017 – present
- Initial Price: $299.99
- Stop date: N/A
- Notable launch games: “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”, “1-2-Switch”, “Just Dance 2017”, “World of Goo”, “Snipperclips” and two “Shovel Knight” games
Sony PlayStation (102+ million units)
- First release date: December 3, 1994
- Lifespan: 1994-2006 (12 years)
- Initial Price: $299
- End date: March 23, 2006
- Notable launch games: “Ridge Racer”, “Rayman”, “Street Fighter: The Movie”, “NBA Jam Tournament Edition”, “Wipeout”, and “Battle Arena Toshinden”
Nintendo Wii (102+ million units)
- First release date: November 19, 2006
- Lifespan: 2006-2017 (11 years)
- Initial Price: $249.99
- End date: October 24, 2013
- Notable Launch Games: “Call of Duty 3”, “Excite Truck”, “Madden 07”, “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance”, Need for Speed: Carbon”, “Rayman Raving Rabbids”, “Red Steel”, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”, “Wii Sports” and “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent”
Sony PlayStation 3 (91+ million units)
- First release date: November 11, 2006
- Lifespan: 2006-2017 (11 years)
- Initial price: $599.99 lol remember those memes
- End date: May 29, 2017
- Notable Launch Games: “Call of Duty 3”, “Madden 07”, “Marvel: Ultimate Alliance”, “MotorStorm”, “Resistance: Fall of Man”, “Ridge Racer 7”, and “Tony Hawk’s Project 8”
Microsoft Xbox 360 (88+ million units)
- First release date: November 22, 2005
- Lifespan: 2005-2016
- Initial Price: $299
- Termination date: April 20, 2016 (11 years)
- Notable Launch Games: “Amped 3”, “Bejeweled 2”, “Call of Duty 2”, “Condemned”, “GUN”, “Geometry Wars”, “Hexic”, “Kameo”, “Madden 06”, “Need for Speed” : Most Wanted”, “Perfect Dark Zero”, “King Kong”, “Project Gotham Racing”, “Quake 4”, “Ridge Racer 6” and “Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (81+ million units)
- First release date: March 21, 2001
- Lifespan: 2001-2008 (7 years)
- Initial Price: $99.99
- Termination date: Q4 2008
- Notable launch games: “Super Mario Advance”, “F-Zero”, “Tony Hawk Pro Skater”, “Dodge Ball Advance”, “ChuChu Rocket!” and “Rayman”
And if you even want to Lake console sales information, below is a handy dandy interactive chart that breaks down sales by region. And below that is a visual timeline of how consoles were sold that stretches even further into the past than anything above. It makes sense that the longer the industry has been around, the more gamers there are and the more games are made, sales increase over time. But historical context is important! So have fun digging through the data.
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