I think a console lifespan of eight years (so 4 years each in first and second half) would be more accurate. Consoles that are relevant to the market for ten years are exceptions rather than typical. That said, great data and I loved reading the analysis on it. Thanks!

Hi @The_Liquid_Laser Thank you for your idea, it is definitely fun to look at all these different angles, here is the same chart but with the peak years:

A few things to highlight are:

1) GBA had its peak year on year 4 but it still sold much less in the second half. I checked that out and it coincides with the release of the DS on its year 5. 

2)PS4 should be able to climb up this list , even with a slight chance to catch up to X360 and maybe even DS.

3)XONE probably won't reach the 3DS, and the 3DS peaked on its first 12 months.  

4)I still want to know how did the N64 peak so early! I would love it if anyone has sales data for Playstation and Sega consoles. 

5) With regards to the switch, if this is its peak year, and it has similar second half than year 4 consoles, then it should sell about 30 million plus what it sells in 2021, so the end total should be near 130 million.

Here is where I think that it is important to not look at data to predict but rather to question. This was an unprecedented year, the switch is in new territory with it being the only console nintendo is focusing on. It is probable that this ends up being the NS peak year, it increased over 40% from last year. But this doesn't really mean it is going to behave like other consoles did. 

Personally I think the NS should easily be second place on this table.

6) Another extremely important factor that really is not seen here... But maybe I should look into adding it. Is when a new console got released, There are two reasons a console has poor second half. The first is that it simply peaks early like the WiiU, but the second is that a new Console is released like the GBA or even the DS.

This is an interesting table.  One thing it clearly shows is that systems that peak later tend to have more sales after 60 months.  It also shows that even after 60 months, Switch is still going to have something like 25-36% of it's lifetime sales if it behaves like past systems. 

There are some people who think Switch sales are going to magically plummet soon, but historically that doesn't happen unless a new system gets released early.  For the past few years Nintendo executives have been talking about lengthening the Switch's lifetime.  It is not likely to get cut short by a new system.  It is actually more likely that the opposite will happen.

Yeah the "Switch cliff" has always been more wishful thinking than realistic prediction. I mean, it's not impossible that Nintendo will lose their marbles and release a premature successor, they've certainly made similarly stupid moves in the past, but it's highly unlikely based on the facts at hand.

Hi @yo33331 Thank you for this information, I would love to see more data from Playstation and Sega, Do you happen to have these sales numbers? I would gladly add them to this list.

If you look at the graph, the Gameboy sold almost 90 million units in it's second life, so it seems like it could potentially be higher than the PS2. But like I mentioned before this is a bit fussy due to the fact that the Gameboy Color is being merged with the Gameboy. 

Also the Wii seems like it was very similar in regards of selling more than its successor during the second life (but that is like cheating because the WiiU sold horrible amounts).

And witht the gameboy asterisk, it sold way way more than the GBA did, According to this chart it sold nearly 90 million in its second life while the GBA sold 22 million in total.

Anyways, thanks for pointing this out, I am sad that there is not that much data on older consoles as it would make it a lot of fun to compare them.

 I mean it is similar as to why Nintendo were still satisfied with the GameCube sales at the end of the day.

This is best i've found for PS1  & PS2:

Wiki has PS2 broken down by region, though not sure how as afaik the info is taken from Sony's press releases which don't usually specify.

Historical press releases about PS from Sony: (just noticed a typo they have on there saying "software/setvices" XD )

https://www.sie.com/en/corporate/release/archives.html

Also think you are ok for Nintendo data, but here is some useful historical spreadsheets from Nintendo's corporate website:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/historical_data/index.html

IF we take Nintendo's management in consideration, the N64 probably was still a good income to them despite the cost of developpement rising due to the 3D tech and the use of cartridges at the time.

Relatively at the time, consoles didn't need to sell to the upwards it does today. I mean it is similar as to why Nintendo were still satisfied with the GameCube sales at the end of the day.

Hi @HigHurtenflurst Thank you very much for these links! I have been checking them out and ther is a ton of data to look at. I saw one of the early press releases and it mentioned regions, someone must have dived real deep into all this data to produce this chart. 

https://www.sie.com/content/dam/corporate/en/corporate/release/pdf/020919e.pdf

This 40 million in 2.5 years was a record at the time, I saw that the DS managed to beat it by a little bit and the Wii actually had almost 48M. Switch was a bit short at 36 (but one less holiday).

Thank you very much for this information, I wish I could give more than one thumbs up.

Now to find Sega! and why not, lets search for Atari as well. :)