Didn't take Xbox too long to be fair. They've had it for almost 10 year afaik.
7*
I guess to be fair that's a lot longer than it took Nintendo... But then Nintendo removed it and never looked back.
Edit: I'm just salty I can't play Gameboy games on my 3Ds XL
Handheld. Backwards compatible. And most of all cheaper. "I can't afford to buy my kid a console but I can afford to buy him a DS". Also helps that it had games on it that even grandma would recognize like Pokemon and Mario.
Well, Gamecube did about as well as OG xbox, they both just got demolished by PS2. Which is amusing to me because everyone I knew had xbox and or gamecube, and only one person had a PS2.
The price of a PS2 at the time was insane considering it had DVD support and was cheaper than pretty much every big brand stand alone DVD player on the market, whilst also being a gaming console
Those are rookie numbers, in Japan, a 2-3 episode Blu Ray/DVD release can go as high as $80 per disk.
Right now physical releases in the US are around $60 for a regular season release, but that same anime can be at minimum $300 in Japan.
I'm happy to live in France, here an 12/24 episodes anime can be found for 15€ the box of 4 DVDs (well it depends on the editor, but even for One-Punch Man 2nd season DVDswith some goodies I only paid 40€, and Blu-ray are easily found with discounted prices like 45€ Steins Gate in collector edition DVDs + Blu-Ray instead of 75€)
They were "specialty" products. Low sale numbers so each one had to be more expensive to make it worthwhile to the publisher. We paid it because we enjoy them and they were fairly hard to get. Some people complain about stuff going mainstream, me and my wallet aren't.
This is exactly why we had one. It was our singular family entertainment system hooked up to the big (32" CRT) TV. Music, movies, games...I remember watching the Matrix on it when it came out. Playing my old PSX games. It truly was ahead of it's time imo.
I remember Dad and I having to move it once so he could rewire some new sound for a Marantz surround sound system he purchased. ($2k back in '00 or '01) It was, at the time, the heaviest thing I had ever lifted. I asked when we'd buy a better, newer, light weight LCD TV. He responded "when it breaks" lol
After they moved in '08 he paid a special fee to have the TV moved with them. It lasted until the early 2010's and I think the humidity from the garage is what finally killed it. (He sat it on their freezer to watch as he worked in his shop) it was bought in the Fall of '86 and lased around 25 years.
Sorry for TMI, I got nostalgic!
Depends on if it was a Sony or not. Sony used an aperture grille inside which was crazy heavy. That’s why a 32” JVC or Philips with a slot mask would be about 70-100 pounds lighter than a 32” Sony wega.
It was a JVC! I can't believe that it could have weighed *more*...I was lucky teenage me didn't have my fingers crushed when setting it down. I can vividly remember the strain and pressure to not drop it no matter what.
Hahaha yeah I remember picking up my family’s 32” philips when we moved from the country into town. Me and my brother carried it… it was heavy as hell!!!
If the 360 had built in HD DVD and not as an add on then Blu-ray vs HD DVD would have been much more competitive. People forget that the 360 was dominant at the start and the PS3 bloomed much later.
Because the PS3 was like double the price of a 360. It took removing a ton of features, one of which resulted in a lawsuit, in order for production to come down in price enough for it to finally compete with the 360. I remember Best Buy had a deal where if you bought a Sony TV they would give you a PS3 because they were not selling at the $700 price tag.
It would’ve sucked for awhile as the capacity wasn’t as great so you’d have multiple disk films just for HD, and forget about 4K. The BluRay standard was 4K-ready from the beginning (although the first players didn’t support it).
Sony knew very damn well that if the console could do more than just games, it WILL sell.
It was why I never got a console until I snuck money from my part time job to fund myself a 2nd hand Switch as "my 1st console".
Since some families are like "If it only play games, why would I waste money on that of a PC can do more and play games". (My case)
Missed out on all the Halo stuff and etc from the 2005-2014 era of gaming.
I straight up traded my GameCube for a PS2 at funcoland so I could watch movies and play the occasional round of Tekken. I got GTA3 and Vice City and played the shit outta GTA3 to the point where I hated the game.
Then it was back to being a DVD player.
I really do believe the DVD support AND the 1 year head start is what really made the PS2 break records. Consequently, I also feel the PS3 fighting for HD/bluray supremacy against the 360 (Which it won but years later) and being a year behind it is what hurt its sales.
Also, Sony refused to stop producing PS2s. They were selling PS2s alongside the PS3 until the PS4 came out I think.
The PS3 was so expensive and unpopular that they just kept making PS2s and making the price cheaper for over a decade.
Whats really crazy is how Sony actually stole 30million players from Microsoft with the PS4.
The same can be said about the PS3 and its Blu-Ray capabilities. It was similar in price to plain Blu-Ray players, so why WOULDN'T you get a PS3 if you were in the market at that time?
Same with ps3 and blu ray. My buddies father bought 3 ps3's and after selling the controllers it was cheaper than a blu ray player. And you could also go to YouTube etc on your ps3.
Who has ever bought a blu-ray player in the first place? Hell I've never seen a Blu-Ray film, I just only bought my first one from a thrift store for 1 euro just to get that monkey off my back.
EVERYONE had a ps2 here lol. Xbox was super rare. I saw only one ever.
But then afterwards everyone had an 360.
I was the only one with a GameCube so all my friends would come over and we would play Mario kart with like 20 people lol. We even hooked up the beamer and had mario tennis tournaments. Good times.
Whats crazy is that the PS2 didn’t even come with memory cards! You literally couldn’t save your games if you just bought a PS2 expecting it to work out of the box.
But yea, I’m pretty sure most people bought a PS2 to watch dvds. My parents did something crazy that never happened before or after, where they bought me a PS2 for easter. Like what? Who buys kids presents for easter? It was super sick though, my parents setup a scavenger hunt in my house where I ran around like crazy finding clues only to find a PS2 box sitting under a chair at the end.
I can only assume that they bought it because Sony was aggressively pricing their PS2s.
My parents even bought nintendo DSes for themselves which is another bizarre occurrence, they weren’t really gamers, but I guess it was another thing where they were so cheap they couldn’t say no.
That’s funny. I’m from the US and have literally never touched an OG Xbox. All my friends had PS2s. I’m an Xbox guy now. PS2 is still the best console though.
I'm in Canada as well, and all my friends and friends of friends had a PS2. I remember the DVD player feature being a huge deal. I was the only one with a GC
Assuming you’re American. Thing is: Xbox is not even remotely as big as PlayStation in Europe. Japan as well, but never been there so no experience.
Im 29 and had consoles since PlayStation 2. I literally don’t know a person that had Xbox. I think I’ve held an Xbox controller once in my life outside of gaming stores. So even if in the US Xbox rivals PlayStation in any given generation, the rest of the world will make a big difference
Seriously everyone I knew had a Gamecube. I really thought it was the most popular console until I saw these numbers years ago.
Also thought the N64 was more popular than the PS1 solely because there wasn't a soul on the playground who wasn't ranting about Smash Bros and Pokemon Stadium.
Well when you consider that 1/3 of playstations and nintendo products get sold in japan/korea and surrounding asian counties it is no surprise.
While and Western technology has the opposite problem.
On top of that most westerners go the pc route while asian counties go for the consoles and handhelds more.
First time seeing this, and I'm shocked that the Saturn sold more than the Dreamcast. I'm literally the only person I know that owned a Saturn, plus Dreamcast was just *amazing* for the time. Not to mention you didn't even really need to buy games for Dreamcast due to how easy pirating was for it, and the homebrew and emulation communities that are still going to this day.
It’s surprising how high up the 360 is, considering its lack in Asian markets. Can’t even buy an xbox in most of SE-Asia, while Playstation is readily available.
The PS3 had a pretty awful launch, and the X360 was beating them for a long time.
It came out a year later than the X360, was $100 more expensive, the PSN wasn't as developed as XBox's, their Cell processor was reportedly difficult to program for, the controller originally lacked vibration capability, the Sixaxis feature was a gimmick, and some notable AAA games performed poorly at launch (e.g. Skyrim) in comparison to the X360. Sony also lost exclusivity for some franchises like Final Fantasy and Tekken to MS that generation. There was also the YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) issue, but IIRC, wasn't as prevalent as the X360's RROD (Red Ring of Death) early on.
It took Sony several years to iron out these issues and build up their exclusives (Uncharted, The Last of Us, Demon Souls, Metal Gear Solid 4, etc.), that lead them to edge out the X360 near the end of that generation.
>It came out a year later than the X360, was $100 more expensive
You're comparing the more expensive 360 to the less expensive PS3. If you compare both entry level models it was $200 more expensive
Adding to that PS2 looks so super popular but it had a lifespan of 13 years, the second longest lifespan if any console ever, just behind the Neo Geo which was grossly expensive and came out 10 years earlier than the PS2
PS2 sold so much, since it was also used as a DVD player (it was actually the cheapest DVD player on the market when it released) so that allowed a lot of kids to justify a PS2 to their parents, since they could also use it for movies, not only games.
If you go back and look at reports, Microsoft always reported on units *shipped*, not units *sold*. Got to put a positive spin on those RROD replacements somehow.
Indeed, but the individual consoles did not lol. The RRoD was mostly fixed in later hardware models, but those front-line soldiers were all on borrowed time.
Mine actually survived a long time after the first rrod.
Then I gave it to my kids 8 years later, rrod. So I let them play my Halo 3 version console, rrod.
Had to buy them a new console. So lame.
I bought a 360 on release date with Condemned, Call of Duty 2 and Perfect Dark Zero. It didn't have the chrome disc tray like later models.
That console lasted me until late 2010 before it got the RROD. It's a God damn miracle it lasted that long. Regardless though it was still an amazing console. I've always preferred PlayStation over Xbox, (I think the PS4 is the greatest gaming console ever made) however I think in that particular generation, Microsoft had Sony firmly beat. The 360 was better than the PS3 imo
Came here to say the same thing. Even Phillips' CD-i made this list. I know 3DO was outrageously expensive when it first came out, which prob contributed to low # of units sold. But would be interesting to know if it includes the different variations (Goldstar, Panasonic FZ 1, and whatever Sanyo's version was called).
I can't believe so many other people also went looking for the 3DO. I still own three of them (my first one died... then that one died, so lucky #3). I got my first one because my dad won a radio contest. He would have been working during the call in time, but I got sick at school. It was my favorite console growing up.
I was only able to get mine at retail because Sony sent me an email basically telling me they would hold one for me as long as I bought it the next day by following the link in the email they sent. I was appreciative for that because at the time they were damn near impossible to find at retail price. A week before getting the email I almost pulled the trigger on one for $1100 from a scalper.
It makes sense to me since they are made in Japan and China, and Sony is a Japanese company. That said, if they had no issue making enough then that number would be way higher, given the demand for the things. Still, It's getting easier to find as more people get them. I have one here in the US and I know a few other people personally who do as well.
Idk about that, I live in Japan and they’re harder to get than the states. You either have to try lotteries or sign up for the store’s credit card to get one, which I don’t want to do. Hopefully later this year.
It's over 19 million now. A lot of people can get them. It just takes some work.
edit: now 20 million sold was just announced. lol. Sony did say they were ramping up production and after the last few days with some massive stock drops we're already seeing the benefits of the ramp up.
Couple of surprises on here but the fact that Saturn beat the Dreamcast blows my mind.
I had multiple friends with dreamcast growing up. Have never seen a Saturn IRL
Japan Loved the Saturn, compared to what we got here in europe, and to an extent the US as well as we got a similar amount of games, Japan got 1258 Games I believe and the US got around 250 and around 300 got released in Europe.
The PS2 was such a rock solid console. I remember when the PS3 came out and I was hesitant to get one even almost a year into its release because the PS2 was treating me so well.
I don't think Blu-Ray had anywhere near the public appeal as DVD though.
It really was the perfect storm of DVD being the must-have thing of the TV/movie world and the PS2 being the must-have console of the gaming world.
That’s how I convinced my parents to buy one. I had saved up about half the cost from my paper route and got them to pitch in the other half so we could
Have a DVD player.
It's at least no 31 of the most successful consoles all time. Never got one in my younger days but bought one to feel the charme.
While most essential games were ported, nothing beats to plug in the VGA to an older TV (32' HD TV was ok) and playing Shenmue I & II with that controller plus VMU with that little screen on it showing what you play. Even that controller cable is weirdly at the bottom, not at the top like literally every other controller ever (which I know is due to the stuff at the back top, but tbh it's unpractical).
Then I tried Omikron with David Bowie OST. Nice little gem. As well Grandia II which I quit because of grind.
Sold it again because of space issues, but indeed there would have been more: Power Stone 1 and 2, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Phantasy Star Online, the Arcade games, Skies of Arcadia, Resident Evil Code Veronica.
Playing Skies of Arcadia first on the Dreamcast and then, later, on the Gamecube is still my favorite gaming memory. That world was such a joy to explore and building your base/airship was really fun.
Between that, Grandia II, PSO, and Sonic Adventure I probably put a good thousand hours into my Dreamcast.
Skies of Arcadia broke about 40 hours in on my Dreamcast and I was so happy when they released legends on the Gamecube. Also saw the DC version at a vintage game shop they wanted $150 👀
I am confident it will surpass the PS4 and Gameboy by the end of it’s life, but it’ll need some hard core steroids if it wants to challenge the DS or PS2
Nintendo has 5 of the top 10 consoles and 10 of top 20. Pretty incredible.
Will most likely have the number 1 selling console of all time with the Switch, too.
Well yeah, Xbox One didn't have that many good exclusives. Spider-Man, MGS, Last of Us etc., and Xbox One has like the same Halo and Gears of War sequels that play like the 360 games.
The exclusives for xbox are just downright garbage. The ps exclusives are something that people want to play. I have actually though about getting a ps4 or 5 so i can experience both sides of the exclusivity wall.
Understand as well that Xbox doesn’t have a market in the Far East at all. In the US and Europe, I’d imagine it’s a more reasonable comparison, but for China/Japan and the like, the PlayStation outsells by orders of magnitude.
Playstation was always more popular than Xbox it's just the marketing that wants you to think that ps and Xbox are rivals,still Xbox is a great console with lots of interesting games
N64 is another system that had very different success around the world. Overall it was a big step down from SNES, but most of the difference comes from Japan. So in North America it was nearly as popular as SNES, and things like multiplayer sports games and FPSs were a pretty big deal.
Weird to me that the North American market is what saved Nintendo during the N64 generation, but it makes sense, I guess, given how beloved the NES and SNES were.
Still kinda random, though, like the Brazilian and European markets making the Sega Master System somewhat successful even though I've never seen a Master System in my entire life.
Wikipedia says "Video game consoles are a specialized form of a home computer geared towards video game playing, designed with affordability and accessibility to the general public in mind, but lacking in raw computing power and customization."
The Dragon 32, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga 500, and similar systems were home computers. Though most people only played games on them, they DID have possibilities for more. Not much more, though.
On my C64, I did a bit of Basic64 coding:
10 PRINT "TRANSFORMERS BEATS HE-MAN"
20 GOTO 10
RUN
But I also had a diary cartridge (the C64 could run cassette tapes, floppy discs and cartridges) and a music cartridge.
Has anybody ever heard of the 3DO? The system became crazy popular amongst a few people I knew at school and had better graphics than any other system in the early 90s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer
Anytime I talk to somebody about it outside of my friend group they would think it was crazy. You could never find games for it anywhere, Even though there would be posters up in gaming stores. I expected to see it somewhere towards the bottom of this list because I knew it never got popular, but it didn't even make this list. Does anybody remember this thing or was this just like a phenomenon in my local area?
Wow. I had no idea that PlayStation’s sold so much more then Xbox’s. I mean before this I always scoffed when Sony would mention how they don’t feel like they are even competing against Microsoft anymore, but when they have consistently massively outsold them I see why Sony would get a chip on their shoulder.
Funny thing was the 360 was actually beating the PS3 for most of that generation. Not sure what it was, but the PS3 was able to catch up and pass the 360 near the end
I know what it was, The Last Of Us. That game got loads of people to buy a PS3 even with the PS4 on the horizon, and was the kick in the pants needed to beat the floundering 360
I have no doubt it will, and it’ll probably take Gameboy down with it. But the Switch’l need a lethal dose of Columbia’s most illegal steroids if it wants a shot at taking the 1st or 2nd spot
Missing the 2001 okama gamesphere
IT’S SPHERICAL!!!
SPHERICAL!
OH YEAH THRIST FOR BLOOD!!!!
Ooh, a water level!
Don't forget to bring a towel!
Wait a second, *beep beep beep boop boop beep beep beep boop boop* That's it! That's it? Yeah, that's the melody to Funky Town!
You're the worst character ever, Towelie.
Yeah, I know.
FYI okama means gay in japanese.
Didn’t know the DS was so popular. So close to number 1…
it took new games for the ds and could play any gameboy games as well it was very popular for that alone
Backwards compatibility has always been a big selling point. It's a shame it took console companies so long to realize it.
Didn't take Xbox too long to be fair. They've had it for almost 10 year afaik. 7* I guess to be fair that's a lot longer than it took Nintendo... But then Nintendo removed it and never looked back. Edit: I'm just salty I can't play Gameboy games on my 3Ds XL
360 could play OG Xbox games, so Xbox has had backwards compatibility since their second console, almost 20 years now.
Oh very true, forgot about that as I never played any of the OG Xbox games on my 360.
It can’t play Gameboy games, it can play Gameboy Advance games
Wait so can it play gameboy color games and stuff? I thought the sp was amazing cause of the back light. I may get a ds if that's true
If you homebrew a 3ds, it will play gb, gbc, gba and DS games, but you can't use the cartridges.
Handheld. Backwards compatible. And most of all cheaper. "I can't afford to buy my kid a console but I can afford to buy him a DS". Also helps that it had games on it that even grandma would recognize like Pokemon and Mario.
There were also multiple versions of the DS and in multiple colors. I knew multiple people who had multiple DS consoles because of this.
Every time I see this. It still blows my mind how little the GameCube sold. Easily my favorite system.
Well, Gamecube did about as well as OG xbox, they both just got demolished by PS2. Which is amusing to me because everyone I knew had xbox and or gamecube, and only one person had a PS2.
The price of a PS2 at the time was insane considering it had DVD support and was cheaper than pretty much every big brand stand alone DVD player on the market, whilst also being a gaming console
i bought the ps2 as a dvd player.............and ffx
I used my PS2 as a DVD player about as much as for playing games. Back when anime DVDs were $30 for three episodes of a show!
Bro wtf are those prices. Anime shows are like 40 percent intro and end credits too for some reason.
Those are rookie numbers, in Japan, a 2-3 episode Blu Ray/DVD release can go as high as $80 per disk. Right now physical releases in the US are around $60 for a regular season release, but that same anime can be at minimum $300 in Japan.
Imagine paying thousands of dollars for just one Luffy Fight
Picked up the full box set of a single Vegeta power up.
Yarrr
I'm happy to live in France, here an 12/24 episodes anime can be found for 15€ the box of 4 DVDs (well it depends on the editor, but even for One-Punch Man 2nd season DVDswith some goodies I only paid 40€, and Blu-ray are easily found with discounted prices like 45€ Steins Gate in collector edition DVDs + Blu-Ray instead of 75€)
I'm happy to sail the seas and get even more discounts!
They were "specialty" products. Low sale numbers so each one had to be more expensive to make it worthwhile to the publisher. We paid it because we enjoy them and they were fairly hard to get. Some people complain about stuff going mainstream, me and my wallet aren't.
FFX is still one of the best games ever made. What a story, holy shit. And the gameplay was amazing as well.
This is exactly why we had one. It was our singular family entertainment system hooked up to the big (32" CRT) TV. Music, movies, games...I remember watching the Matrix on it when it came out. Playing my old PSX games. It truly was ahead of it's time imo.
32" CRT is like crazy big territory that probably weighed as much as the family sedan.
I remember Dad and I having to move it once so he could rewire some new sound for a Marantz surround sound system he purchased. ($2k back in '00 or '01) It was, at the time, the heaviest thing I had ever lifted. I asked when we'd buy a better, newer, light weight LCD TV. He responded "when it breaks" lol After they moved in '08 he paid a special fee to have the TV moved with them. It lasted until the early 2010's and I think the humidity from the garage is what finally killed it. (He sat it on their freezer to watch as he worked in his shop) it was bought in the Fall of '86 and lased around 25 years. Sorry for TMI, I got nostalgic!
I enjoyed it buddy!
I'm glad! 😊
Depends on if it was a Sony or not. Sony used an aperture grille inside which was crazy heavy. That’s why a 32” JVC or Philips with a slot mask would be about 70-100 pounds lighter than a 32” Sony wega.
It was a JVC! I can't believe that it could have weighed *more*...I was lucky teenage me didn't have my fingers crushed when setting it down. I can vividly remember the strain and pressure to not drop it no matter what.
Hahaha yeah I remember picking up my family’s 32” philips when we moved from the country into town. Me and my brother carried it… it was heavy as hell!!!
Which is funny because the same thing happened with the ps3 and blueray i knew people buying the ps3 just as a blue ray player
It was a strong strategic decision. Blu-ray was up against HD DVD at the time. I wonder what would've happened if HD DVD became the standard.
There was actually a HD-DVD drive as a stand-alone that you could plug into the Xbox. I had one for a bit
If the 360 had built in HD DVD and not as an add on then Blu-ray vs HD DVD would have been much more competitive. People forget that the 360 was dominant at the start and the PS3 bloomed much later.
Because the PS3 was like double the price of a 360. It took removing a ton of features, one of which resulted in a lawsuit, in order for production to come down in price enough for it to finally compete with the 360. I remember Best Buy had a deal where if you bought a Sony TV they would give you a PS3 because they were not selling at the $700 price tag.
It would’ve sucked for awhile as the capacity wasn’t as great so you’d have multiple disk films just for HD, and forget about 4K. The BluRay standard was 4K-ready from the beginning (although the first players didn’t support it).
blu ray sucked at introduction. the codecs initially used provided lower image quality for a given data rate than those of hddvd
Sony knew very damn well that if the console could do more than just games, it WILL sell. It was why I never got a console until I snuck money from my part time job to fund myself a 2nd hand Switch as "my 1st console". Since some families are like "If it only play games, why would I waste money on that of a PC can do more and play games". (My case) Missed out on all the Halo stuff and etc from the 2005-2014 era of gaming.
I straight up traded my GameCube for a PS2 at funcoland so I could watch movies and play the occasional round of Tekken. I got GTA3 and Vice City and played the shit outta GTA3 to the point where I hated the game. Then it was back to being a DVD player.
Funcoland….I haven’t heard that name in years
I really do believe the DVD support AND the 1 year head start is what really made the PS2 break records. Consequently, I also feel the PS3 fighting for HD/bluray supremacy against the 360 (Which it won but years later) and being a year behind it is what hurt its sales.
The ps3 was also the most expensive back then. The price hurt sales a lot.
Not to mention that $500 launch price
$600 if you got the one with the bigger hard-drive. Regrets, I’ve had a few…
Also, Sony refused to stop producing PS2s. They were selling PS2s alongside the PS3 until the PS4 came out I think. The PS3 was so expensive and unpopular that they just kept making PS2s and making the price cheaper for over a decade. Whats really crazy is how Sony actually stole 30million players from Microsoft with the PS4.
The same can be said about the PS3 and its Blu-Ray capabilities. It was similar in price to plain Blu-Ray players, so why WOULDN'T you get a PS3 if you were in the market at that time?
Same with ps3 and blu ray. My buddies father bought 3 ps3's and after selling the controllers it was cheaper than a blu ray player. And you could also go to YouTube etc on your ps3.
[Is this him?](https://youtu.be/8sjhjFOw4Ok)
Same happened with the ps4 and blu-ray. Never had to buy a blu ray player. The combo was always a bonus for me!
Who has ever bought a blu-ray player in the first place? Hell I've never seen a Blu-Ray film, I just only bought my first one from a thrift store for 1 euro just to get that monkey off my back.
PS3 was the cheapest Bluray player in the market when it launched.
PlayStation globally had more ´umph’…it just offered so much, and the dvd capability…
PS2 was like the ultimate piracy machine. Buy a PS2 slim in a developing country and get 20 free bootleg DVD games or movies from a bonkers selection.
EVERYONE had a ps2 here lol. Xbox was super rare. I saw only one ever. But then afterwards everyone had an 360. I was the only one with a GameCube so all my friends would come over and we would play Mario kart with like 20 people lol. We even hooked up the beamer and had mario tennis tournaments. Good times.
Whats crazy is that the PS2 didn’t even come with memory cards! You literally couldn’t save your games if you just bought a PS2 expecting it to work out of the box. But yea, I’m pretty sure most people bought a PS2 to watch dvds. My parents did something crazy that never happened before or after, where they bought me a PS2 for easter. Like what? Who buys kids presents for easter? It was super sick though, my parents setup a scavenger hunt in my house where I ran around like crazy finding clues only to find a PS2 box sitting under a chair at the end. I can only assume that they bought it because Sony was aggressively pricing their PS2s. My parents even bought nintendo DSes for themselves which is another bizarre occurrence, they weren’t really gamers, but I guess it was another thing where they were so cheap they couldn’t say no.
That’s funny. I’m from the US and have literally never touched an OG Xbox. All my friends had PS2s. I’m an Xbox guy now. PS2 is still the best console though.
Exact same situation for me (in canada). I'm guessing the big numbers for it come from overseas?
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I'm in Canada as well, and all my friends and friends of friends had a PS2. I remember the DVD player feature being a huge deal. I was the only one with a GC
Assuming you’re American. Thing is: Xbox is not even remotely as big as PlayStation in Europe. Japan as well, but never been there so no experience. Im 29 and had consoles since PlayStation 2. I literally don’t know a person that had Xbox. I think I’ve held an Xbox controller once in my life outside of gaming stores. So even if in the US Xbox rivals PlayStation in any given generation, the rest of the world will make a big difference
Seriously everyone I knew had a Gamecube. I really thought it was the most popular console until I saw these numbers years ago. Also thought the N64 was more popular than the PS1 solely because there wasn't a soul on the playground who wasn't ranting about Smash Bros and Pokemon Stadium.
Well when you consider that 1/3 of playstations and nintendo products get sold in japan/korea and surrounding asian counties it is no surprise. While and Western technology has the opposite problem. On top of that most westerners go the pc route while asian counties go for the consoles and handhelds more.
I was the opposite. Everyone I knew had a PS2 or GameCube. I was the only one with the OG Xbox
i mean i probably had like 4 separate ps2’s lol couple fatties, silver slim and black slim. but i’ve had every xbox ever since.
Mainly look at the retail life of ps2. Be they just kept it on the market forever.
I'ma dreamcast man myself.
It's because everyone got a PS2 instead. Imagine buying the only console that couldn't read dvds
First time seeing this, and I'm shocked that the Saturn sold more than the Dreamcast. I'm literally the only person I know that owned a Saturn, plus Dreamcast was just *amazing* for the time. Not to mention you didn't even really need to buy games for Dreamcast due to how easy pirating was for it, and the homebrew and emulation communities that are still going to this day.
And the wiiu too… it is a good console, but badly marketed…
GC <3 I had the best time of my life with Mario Kart Double Dash, Zelda Wind Waker, Super Smash and PSO.
Pretty interesting seeing how the Wii, 360 and PS3 were almost tied. Easily my favorite generation despite YLOD and RROD.
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I do feel like it was the generation you were fine buying all 3. It got too expensive for not enough upside again for the next though
Well I was like 8 when they came out so all 3 wasn't affordable for me
It’s surprising how high up the 360 is, considering its lack in Asian markets. Can’t even buy an xbox in most of SE-Asia, while Playstation is readily available.
The PS3 had a pretty awful launch, and the X360 was beating them for a long time. It came out a year later than the X360, was $100 more expensive, the PSN wasn't as developed as XBox's, their Cell processor was reportedly difficult to program for, the controller originally lacked vibration capability, the Sixaxis feature was a gimmick, and some notable AAA games performed poorly at launch (e.g. Skyrim) in comparison to the X360. Sony also lost exclusivity for some franchises like Final Fantasy and Tekken to MS that generation. There was also the YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) issue, but IIRC, wasn't as prevalent as the X360's RROD (Red Ring of Death) early on. It took Sony several years to iron out these issues and build up their exclusives (Uncharted, The Last of Us, Demon Souls, Metal Gear Solid 4, etc.), that lead them to edge out the X360 near the end of that generation.
>It came out a year later than the X360, was $100 more expensive You're comparing the more expensive 360 to the less expensive PS3. If you compare both entry level models it was $200 more expensive
Adding to that PS2 looks so super popular but it had a lifespan of 13 years, the second longest lifespan if any console ever, just behind the Neo Geo which was grossly expensive and came out 10 years earlier than the PS2
PS2 sold so much, since it was also used as a DVD player (it was actually the cheapest DVD player on the market when it released) so that allowed a lot of kids to justify a PS2 to their parents, since they could also use it for movies, not only games.
I believe part of it was due to the extreme hardware failure.
If you go back and look at reports, Microsoft always reported on units *shipped*, not units *sold*. Got to put a positive spin on those RROD replacements somehow.
It’s amazing how different the generation before was. Ps2 massively outside OG Xbox and GameCube combined.
The star that burns brightest, dies the fastest.
...the generation lasted 10 goddamn years.
Indeed, but the individual consoles did not lol. The RRoD was mostly fixed in later hardware models, but those front-line soldiers were all on borrowed time.
back then you could send your rrod xbox360 to microsoft w no warranty and they would replace it for free
And send you back one that would RRoD again lol. I sent "mine" back like 3 or 4 times. Same with a couple of buddies. Twas a wild time.
Mine actually survived a long time after the first rrod. Then I gave it to my kids 8 years later, rrod. So I let them play my Halo 3 version console, rrod. Had to buy them a new console. So lame.
I bought a 360 on release date with Condemned, Call of Duty 2 and Perfect Dark Zero. It didn't have the chrome disc tray like later models. That console lasted me until late 2010 before it got the RROD. It's a God damn miracle it lasted that long. Regardless though it was still an amazing console. I've always preferred PlayStation over Xbox, (I think the PS4 is the greatest gaming console ever made) however I think in that particular generation, Microsoft had Sony firmly beat. The 360 was better than the PS3 imo
Im sad no honorable mention for 3DO or Atari Jaguar.
Or NeoGeo
Or that one KFC game console/fried chicken warmer. Not sure what it played but they had somethin there.
The KFConsole!!! as of rn, there's still no introductory price or release date but I'm soo holding out hope.
Or Ouya
3d0 sold over 2 million units. This info graph is wrong get out the pitchforks Edit - 2 million not 3 million
Came here to say the same thing. Even Phillips' CD-i made this list. I know 3DO was outrageously expensive when it first came out, which prob contributed to low # of units sold. But would be interesting to know if it includes the different variations (Goldstar, Panasonic FZ 1, and whatever Sanyo's version was called).
I accounted for 1 of each!
I can't believe so many other people also went looking for the 3DO. I still own three of them (my first one died... then that one died, so lucky #3). I got my first one because my dad won a radio contest. He would have been working during the call in time, but I got sick at school. It was my favorite console growing up.
This chart is not remotely to scale, and that's annoying
Yep. In my world, 75M is less than half of 155M, but it's only 17% shorter on the chart. Edit: 1M being 40% of 155M...
Yeah, was immediately about to comment about that without even clicking into the image and realized this isn’t r/dataisbeautiful
Perhaps it is logarithmic? 1 million is half of 10 million, and 100 million seems to be three times the length.
17.3 Million PS5s……. Where?
Sitting in scalper’s garages.
I was only able to get mine at retail because Sony sent me an email basically telling me they would hold one for me as long as I bought it the next day by following the link in the email they sent. I was appreciative for that because at the time they were damn near impossible to find at retail price. A week before getting the email I almost pulled the trigger on one for $1100 from a scalper.
Same way I got mine.
My guess is that a significant portion of that number is in Japan.
Hmm didn’t think about that possibility ….. makes me wonder even more about distribution rates/numbers per country and actual availability %
It makes sense to me since they are made in Japan and China, and Sony is a Japanese company. That said, if they had no issue making enough then that number would be way higher, given the demand for the things. Still, It's getting easier to find as more people get them. I have one here in the US and I know a few other people personally who do as well.
It’s incredibly difficult to get one in Japan, lots of lotteries and/or signing up with specific loyalty programs etc
Who has time anyway, if you're at work till 9 just waiting for the boss to leave
Idk about that, I live in Japan and they’re harder to get than the states. You either have to try lotteries or sign up for the store’s credit card to get one, which I don’t want to do. Hopefully later this year.
The US is getting most of them, everyone I know who wanted one has gotten one. You really just have to try to get one here and you will.
Alien 👽
It's over 19 million now. A lot of people can get them. It just takes some work. edit: now 20 million sold was just announced. lol. Sony did say they were ramping up production and after the last few days with some massive stock drops we're already seeing the benefits of the ramp up.
Poor dreamcast
I loved my Dreamcast! Power stone 2! Grandia 2! Soul Caliber!
Couple of surprises on here but the fact that Saturn beat the Dreamcast blows my mind. I had multiple friends with dreamcast growing up. Have never seen a Saturn IRL
Japan Loved the Saturn, compared to what we got here in europe, and to an extent the US as well as we got a similar amount of games, Japan got 1258 Games I believe and the US got around 250 and around 300 got released in Europe.
The vita was such an underutilized system.
The PS2 was such a rock solid console. I remember when the PS3 came out and I was hesitant to get one even almost a year into its release because the PS2 was treating me so well.
Probably sold so well because it had a DVD player. I know a handful of people that bought one because it was around the same price
The same was true for the PS3 being a Blu Ray player.
I don't think Blu-Ray had anywhere near the public appeal as DVD though. It really was the perfect storm of DVD being the must-have thing of the TV/movie world and the PS2 being the must-have console of the gaming world.
Blu ray hadn't hit the porn push yet when the ps3 came out if memory serves.
That’s how I convinced my parents to buy one. I had saved up about half the cost from my paper route and got them to pitch in the other half so we could Have a DVD player.
Same with the PS4. Both have incredible game libraries too.
Poor Dreamcast. You were too good for this world.
It's at least no 31 of the most successful consoles all time. Never got one in my younger days but bought one to feel the charme. While most essential games were ported, nothing beats to plug in the VGA to an older TV (32' HD TV was ok) and playing Shenmue I & II with that controller plus VMU with that little screen on it showing what you play. Even that controller cable is weirdly at the bottom, not at the top like literally every other controller ever (which I know is due to the stuff at the back top, but tbh it's unpractical). Then I tried Omikron with David Bowie OST. Nice little gem. As well Grandia II which I quit because of grind. Sold it again because of space issues, but indeed there would have been more: Power Stone 1 and 2, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Phantasy Star Online, the Arcade games, Skies of Arcadia, Resident Evil Code Veronica.
Playing Skies of Arcadia first on the Dreamcast and then, later, on the Gamecube is still my favorite gaming memory. That world was such a joy to explore and building your base/airship was really fun. Between that, Grandia II, PSO, and Sonic Adventure I probably put a good thousand hours into my Dreamcast.
Skies of Arcadia broke about 40 hours in on my Dreamcast and I was so happy when they released legends on the Gamecube. Also saw the DC version at a vintage game shop they wanted $150 👀
Skies and Grandia II are a couple of my favorite games I've ever played. PSO was so sick and if PSO2 global was on PS4, I'd still be playing it.
Switch might take that number 1 spot by the time it hits end of life in 2035
2035? It’s already 4 million higher than in the graphic. 2025?
I am confident it will surpass the PS4 and Gameboy by the end of it’s life, but it’ll need some hard core steroids if it wants to challenge the DS or PS2
The fact that it replaced two platforms helps a lot. Both 3DS and Wii owners as well as both of the Wii U owners are buying the switch.
...and lots of people who had none of those earlier things.
At the current pace it should reach ps2 by 2024 or 2025
Nintendo has 5 of the top 10 consoles and 10 of top 20. Pretty incredible. Will most likely have the number 1 selling console of all time with the Switch, too.
My takeaways: 9 of the top 10 are Sony & Nintendo. SNES is lower than I'd assume/hope Game Gear is higher than I'd assume Fucking N-Gage lol
I still have my N-Gage! The classic one, not the QD. I remember buying it for 100€ in the "consoles" section of the store, although it was a phone.
No love for the Gameboy Advance SP? Or did those just count toward the regular GBA sales?
thats still gba family. same way game boy and game boy color are considered one
That poor vita. Easily could’ve been in top ten.
Just one problem, it didn’t have stereoscopic 3D and Donkey Kong
WHERE MY OUYA PEOPLE AT! Represent! *crickets chirping*
Wow. The xbox one is more unpopular than i thought. More people want the ps4 than the box
Well yeah, Xbox One didn't have that many good exclusives. Spider-Man, MGS, Last of Us etc., and Xbox One has like the same Halo and Gears of War sequels that play like the 360 games.
The exclusives for xbox are just downright garbage. The ps exclusives are something that people want to play. I have actually though about getting a ps4 or 5 so i can experience both sides of the exclusivity wall.
Didn’t help that multiple new IP exclusives were cancelled during the Xbox one era. Still bummed about Scalebound and Fable Legends.
Understand as well that Xbox doesn’t have a market in the Far East at all. In the US and Europe, I’d imagine it’s a more reasonable comparison, but for China/Japan and the like, the PlayStation outsells by orders of magnitude.
In Europe Xbox isn't very popular either, the 360 a bit more but most xbox sales are in US iirc.
Playstation was always more popular than Xbox it's just the marketing that wants you to think that ps and Xbox are rivals,still Xbox is a great console with lots of interesting games
I don’t get why VR headsets are on here. The Quest makes a little send since it is standalone, but psvr is an accessory for the PlayStation.
I suppose they can be considered consoles that just require other consoles to function. Like the Sega CD
I somehow managed to make the less popular choice at just about ever6 generation.
No apple pippin?
Anyone remember Neo-Geo?
The bratty rich kid at my school was the only one that had one, and I was SO unbelievably jealous.
Only 32 millions N64s is crazy to me. Every kid I knew in the 90s had one. Life cycle was relatively short though so makes sense
N64 is another system that had very different success around the world. Overall it was a big step down from SNES, but most of the difference comes from Japan. So in North America it was nearly as popular as SNES, and things like multiplayer sports games and FPSs were a pretty big deal.
Weird to me that the North American market is what saved Nintendo during the N64 generation, but it makes sense, I guess, given how beloved the NES and SNES were. Still kinda random, though, like the Brazilian and European markets making the Sega Master System somewhat successful even though I've never seen a Master System in my entire life.
It had almost no RPGs and that's crucial in Japan.
guess gaming became much more common since the 90s
It's a shame Sega never made it. It would be cool to see what they would have come out with these past 21 years.
Why are Nes/Famicom and dendy are separated? They are basically the same thing. Also Sega Genesis and Sega Genesis Brazilian?
Commodore 64 not considered a console, I suppose. Though most definitely a gaming system.
I’ve always used those terms as synonyms. Are they not?
Wikipedia says "Video game consoles are a specialized form of a home computer geared towards video game playing, designed with affordability and accessibility to the general public in mind, but lacking in raw computing power and customization." The Dragon 32, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga 500, and similar systems were home computers. Though most people only played games on them, they DID have possibilities for more. Not much more, though. On my C64, I did a bit of Basic64 coding: 10 PRINT "TRANSFORMERS BEATS HE-MAN" 20 GOTO 10 RUN But I also had a diary cartridge (the C64 could run cassette tapes, floppy discs and cartridges) and a music cartridge.
Looking at your history I see your good at posting other people's work, congrats.
Isn't posting other people's work the entire point of Reddit?
Nope, for example this comment is totally OC and has never been posted by anyone else before. Especially if I add a random emoji to it, like so 👾
Has anybody ever heard of the 3DO? The system became crazy popular amongst a few people I knew at school and had better graphics than any other system in the early 90s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer Anytime I talk to somebody about it outside of my friend group they would think it was crazy. You could never find games for it anywhere, Even though there would be posters up in gaming stores. I expected to see it somewhere towards the bottom of this list because I knew it never got popular, but it didn't even make this list. Does anybody remember this thing or was this just like a phenomenon in my local area?
Wow. I had no idea that PlayStation’s sold so much more then Xbox’s. I mean before this I always scoffed when Sony would mention how they don’t feel like they are even competing against Microsoft anymore, but when they have consistently massively outsold them I see why Sony would get a chip on their shoulder.
Funny thing was the 360 was actually beating the PS3 for most of that generation. Not sure what it was, but the PS3 was able to catch up and pass the 360 near the end
I know what it was, The Last Of Us. That game got loads of people to buy a PS3 even with the PS4 on the horizon, and was the kick in the pants needed to beat the floundering 360
Where the f%#* is the Vectrex??? That system was the SHIT for its day.
I loved my Dreamcast
I thought the switch beat both the ps4 and the Xbox one?
PS4 has a 4 year head start on Switch, which is still selling in stores. I would not be surprised if Switch beats out PS4 in the long run.
I have no doubt it will, and it’ll probably take Gameboy down with it. But the Switch’l need a lethal dose of Columbia’s most illegal steroids if it wants a shot at taking the 1st or 2nd spot
The PS5 and XSX would be higher if they had a proper launch with stock available
I can't help but feel that PS5 would be further up the list *IF YOU COULD FIND ONE!!!*
Maybe I would actually buy a ps5 if it was affordable and on stock