Wow congrats to Nintendo. And that's not even including everything such as Game & Watch, Virtual Boy, etc. 1Bn is probably 2.5 gens away if this Switch thing works out.

N64 to Gamecube is the outlier, should have called it Nintendo 128.

Most impressive. I don't think they will ever hit 1 billion though. I really do think the tenth generation (PlayStation 6) will be the final hardware generation of gaming. Different gaming PCs and cloud devices will kill off traditional platforms by then.
The Switch can probably bring Nintendo up to 800 million, but no guarantee.

Hold on a muh-fuggin second...

Is that image of the big 3's financials showing "profits". Too bad it doesn't go past 2011. Did Sony's profits after 2011 for the PS3 offset their losses? That is absolutely insane to me.

Take 1998, for example, which had Sony's most successful year on this chart at just over a billion. Is this to say that Sony's profit in 1998 is roughly five times better than their profits in every other year of this chart combined?

I remember the PS3 having a rough start, but it did manage good sales by the end. How did this happen?

Bold: Oh, no, no. Sony lost a lot money on every console sold for several years. When you couple that with blu ray losses being lumped together with PlayStation losses you're set for disastrous financial reports.

At least the failures of PS3 helped make PS4 a great success. So it's not all bad, I guess.

Those peak Wii/DS years, my GAH!!

Pretty incredible achievements for Nintendo, the only active hardware company in the industry that has endured the majority of generations in video game history. From the arcades to the 8-bit era to the rise of 3D graphics to the complexities of the HD/Blu-Ray era and, soon, the 4K-8K era.

People say that the PlayStation brand is, currently, the strongest in the industry. Maybe so, but I don't think Nintendo's brand is far behind and its possibly matching the PS brand at this moment with the Switch dominating worldwide as of now. Its closing in on Xbox One's LTD sales (which dates back to 2013 compared to Switch's 2017 launch).

Part of it revolves around Nintendo's IPs, which are the hallmark of Nintendo's business. While most franchises (even some of Nintendo's lesser known IPs) have come and gone, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Smash Bros., etc. have continued to endure for 20+ years. Being able to reinvent these franchises and reach new audiences is nothing short of incredible. Then you have other IPs like Wii Sports, Splatoon, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Xenoblade, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, among others that diversify Nintendo's lineup and provide unique experiences within that brand and audience.

Here is the Mario breakdown.

2D Mario - 246.65 million
Mario Kart - 138.18 million
3D Mario - 82.89 million
Mario Party - 51.60 million
Mario Sports - 28.76 million
Mario & Sonic - 21.55 million
Mario & Luigi - 14.87 million
Dr Mario - 11.49 million
Mario Maker - 11.34 million
Paper Mario - 10.37 million
Other* - 13.70~ million

*These include Mario Paint, Mario vs DK, Mario RPG, Mario+Rabbids and other smaller single entry titles.

Yeah they are insane. I'm going to do some digging and figure out if there is an updated chart somewhere for after 2011.

Since people seem to be interested in that chart I provided through 2011, here is a more updated one through 2013:

https://images.app.goo.gl/kb39uDBY7oDnT3ty9