First off I'm going to say thanks to Shadow1980 for the following charts from his NPD post, but I think they illustrate what an amazing first year the N64 had, and I've always maintained this -- the N64 should've won that generation. The N64 is a unique system from a sales POV IMO it's maybe the only so-called "failed" system that actually was really actually popular with consumers.

It was like a baby destined for great things that was crippled by a terrible mistake made by its parents. Had Nintendo compromised on the CD situation (even made a CD drive in lieu of that stupid 64DD that went nowhere) it would've won that generation and potentially sold over 100 million consoles. I've always felt this and this has always been to me as a Nintendo fan "the generation that got away". You could have had either a CD add-on or kept the cartridge slot and had a CD drive. Either way would've worked. 

To illustrate this I present the following two charts:

Now is Playstation sales. You can see in the US it wasn't anything special until late 1997 when Final Fantasy VII comes along. A game that it likely would not have had if Nintendo had just compromised on the CD issue. In fact you can see the PSX was quite unimpressive prior to that point selling like a Wii U for certain stretches. In Japan it was even losing to the Sega Saturn for until 1997 I believe. Squaresoft and FFVII basically turned that entire generation in Sony's favor. 

Second, lets look at actual N64 sales:

Look at those freaking N64 sales for year 1 in yellow! That is amazing when you consider how much smaller the industry was in 1996/97, it's first year in the US arguably may be more impressive than even the Wii and PS4 considering the industry size difference. And the N64 did that with droughts too ... poor thing was starved for games for months at a time. Like literally one game a month was a good month for the N64. 

After all those game droughts and a lack of support titles the N64 finally succumbed to lower sales later in life, but IMO this is all such a shame it had to finish like that. 

So take a bow you sexy Silicon Graphics beast, I'll always remember you fondly, Nintendo 64. You were robbed, little buddy. 

Updated the OP title to be more bold and concise about what I mean.

LMAO

You're joking right? Is this another "globally in the US" memes?

It only resonated with customers in America, America isn't the world.

PS1 rightly won its generation, both in terms of furthering the industry forward with CDs, crazy azz goofy games and its library in general which is regarded as top 3 best console libraries with Snes and PS2. N64 has only a select few noteworthy games and came 1.5 years too late in the market.

Even Saturn has a better library and it deserves more sales than the N64. Both Saturn and PS1 games hold up better than N64 games with its blurry, smear imposed bilinear texture filtered games.

Actually N64 even starved of games still sold virtually the same as the SNES did in North America and Europe. The only difference was basically Japan where losing Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest sadly neutered the system there. 

Never should have happened. FF7/8/9 and Dragon Quest VII should have been N64 exclusives. Now the odds are much more even, and I like Nintendo's chances against Sony in that scenario. Sony needed virtually a monopoly on all major third party games to win that generation, if N64 has a CD drive first of all I don't think companies that were historically close to Nintendo like Squaresoft and Enix would've left as there would be little reason to do so. 

No way IMO Sony would have been able to compete against the combined might of Mario 64, GoldenEye, Zelda: OoT, and Final Fantasy VII ... no way. And I think other Playstation exclusives like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil 1/2/3 would've gone multi-plat. Tekken and maybe Tomb Raider would've stayed for Sony (maybe). 

Saturn has 600 games and most of them fantastic. In terms of library it was a far better system than N64 and deserved better sales but Sega of Japan turning down SEGA of America's deal to partner with Sony backfired badly. (PS1 used the specs SOA wanted). N64 is a good console no doubt with some absolute classics. Thing is Had only about 200 games and was severely lacking in Fighting games,RPGs and shmups which at the time were huge. Saturn and PS1 kinda had everything but PS1 had more than Saturn and bigger named like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear plus the better ports of Tomb Raider,CSOTN and Resident Evil. Honestly N64 I do like it a lot but it's in 3rd place for library that gen.

Exactly, though this never should have been the case. N64 should have had lots of fighting games and RPGs, just like the Super NES before it. 

I wish I could go back in time to meeting where Nintendo decided on cartridge only and slap some sense into whoever thought that was a good idea.

The 64 was a great console. The last dedicated games console, and the best. I had amazing times with Mario 64, Goldeneye, Wrestlemania 2000 & WWF No Mercy, and many more great titles. All these years I have been looking for a successor to this system, and in my eyes the Switch is that device. I can't wait to grab one later this year.

As for 64 winning the generation? I still think Sony winning was a great victory for gamers and the industry. They brought a lot of innovation to the market, and pushed in directions Nintendo never would have. The industry became much stronger with two solid competitors.

I will always look back foundly at the 64. It honestly is the one system I regret getting rid of.

But in the end IMO truly the better system won by a landslide. Sony simply did everything better than Nintendo. The 1st party output was fresh and came in large numbers, CD became a standard and their relationships with 3rd party developers was miles ahead of Nintendo.

And lets be honest. No matter how good Mario 64, Goldeneye or OoT was, the PS simply had the superior library.

N64 first party output was better than Sony's. 

Take Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest away and make Metal Gear and Resident Evil multiplat and things swing in Nintendo's favor very quickly. 

And Mario 64/GoldenEye/OoT are arguably 3/4 of the top games of that generation. With a CD-drive IMO Sony would not be able to match up with Nintendo. It likely would've split like this:

N64 Exclusive: Super Mario 64, Zelda: OoT, GoldenEye, Final Fantasy VII/VIII/IX, Dragon Quest VII, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Star Fox 64, Mario Kart 64, etc. 

Playstation Exclusive: Crash Bandicoot 1/2/3, Gran Turismo, Spyro The Dragon, NFL GameDay, Maybe Tekken, Maybe Tomb Raider. 

Multi-Plat: Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, EA Sports games, various other third party filler titles. 

IMO, Nintendo wins that and would also have superior multiplat games due to stronger hardware. 

People always think N64 lost because it didn't have a CD drive, they're WRONG. As I stated earlier N64 came in 1996, PS1 and Saturn in 1994. It was too late in the market. Nintendo was still riding off its Snes sales in 1994. If anything, Saturn deserved FF7-9 and DQ to be multiplats with PS1, and it would have if it wasn't so hard to program for. Those games would never have become exclusive to Nintendo with a very easy system like PS1 on the market. No one would choose Nintendo with their anti 3rd party practices even if they made a system on the level of PS1, they were very happy with Sony.

Seriously it sounds like you dont know why Nintendo lost and blame everything on the lack of CD Drive which is revisionism at its worst.

It only sold like 6 million in Europe despite being marketed heavily by Nintendo, I remember how much marketing there was for the system, it was as prominent as the PS1 in stores yet it only ended up with 5-6 million.

The gen should've gone PS1>Saturn>N64, Saturn deserved to sell more than the N64.