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 DVD. The Game Cube was objectively a better console than the PS2, but it was still limited by the physical format they chose, handing it over to Sony once again. On the other hand, developers preferred to program for the PlayStation 2, which also became video 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 feat of Game Boy. 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 position itself 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 younger audience. And the way of playing was a lot more intuitivea path they would continue with the Wii.
Game Boy – 118.69 million
Fourteen years the Game Boy was for sale in total, which started selling in 1989. It was a simple console, with cartridges and contrast that left a lot to be desired. sold millions of Tetris and made many software engineers rack their brains trying to code for it. Near the end of her mature 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 bring out the Game Boy Color and delay the release of the Game Boy Advance a little longer.
PlayStation 4 – 116 million
With a generation that started in 2013 and hasn’t finished yet, the PS4 is the fourth best selling console of history at the moment. And that they said that it had run out of power in the middle of the cycle – remember that they released the PS4 Pro and Microsoft also made a similar move with its Xbox. Already based on a x86-64 architecture computer, the AMD Jaguar that was hidden under the chassis of this console was a piece of cake for 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 arrive that were not intended for this console. In any case, if you have a PS4, you have a treasure.
PlayStation – 104.25 million
As we commented a few lines above, PlayStation was born from a break between Nintendo and Sony in the late 1980s. Nintendo decided to cut them off when they saw their CD-ROM royalties go to their heads. oh mamma mia, Nintendo. What you missed.
For Sony, entering the console market was a ‘come, vidi, vici’. They reached uncharted territory and They conquered the market in a fulminant way. Only Grand Touring it sold over 11 million copies. His cars looked through the rearview mirror at a Nintendo 64, with some obsolete cartridges that were left in the gutter 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 very bland catalogue. But as we said before, no one beats nintendo by making handheld consoles. His launch was timid, but before turning 6 years old, this Nintendo hybrid is at its best. To the extent that it is known for certain thate will end up reaching Nintendo DS, since it continues to have an ascending sales progression. the switch it has sold faster than the Wii, PS4 and PS2. With recent releases like the Oled version, we have no doubt that there is Switch for a while.
Nintendo Wii – 101 million
It was going to be called ‘Revolution’, but they nailed it even more with the naming calling it ‘Wii’. After two consecutive failures, Nintendo focused on what in marketing is called ‘time 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 hold great affection.
PlayStation 3 – 87.4 million and Xbox 360 – 85.8 million
The seventh generation of game consoles was for the Wii, yes. But the real consolers were split between the PS3 and the 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 one or the other the winner depending on which region. Still, it was a very interesting time in the video game industry.
Game Boy Advance – 81.8 million
the GBA it did not get to repeat the success of Game Boy. Still, she had very good sales. Those of us who were little at that time always had the thorn in the side that Nintendo did not come out with the perfect console under the name of ‘Game Boy Advance’. The original Advance had a perfect design. In fact, all modern portable consoles have a very similar design to this model. However, it repeated errors of the traditional Game Boy, with a screen that did not look good when not have backlight —which they knew how to do perfectly because they released a Game Boy Light in Japan years before—.
The 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 enjoy on a handheld 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 list that is a little more humble, with some of the consoles that didn’t quite catch on in the market. The list could be endless, but we have stayed with some of the great proposals that Regrettably they failed in their attempt to dominate the market:
- nintendo gamecube – #20 – 21.74 million
- Play Station 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 Gearwhich was the laptop with which they tried to take on the Game Boy sold 16 times fewer 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.
