| TheSource said: Also note: USA Population in 2003 - 291m. PS2 peaked in 2002, so probably ~289m USA Population in 1990 - 248m. NES peaked in 1989, so probably ~245m So the USA 2002 Pop= USA 1989 Pop * 1.17 If NES sold ~7.5-8.0m of those shipped units in the USA in 1989, and if I'm remembering correctly, PS2 did 8-9m in the USA in 2002, then PS2 roughly only peaked 17% higher than NES - exactly in line with USA population growth. Thats all estimation but still fairly stunning if even remotely true. |
Thing is though, Nintendo sold so well when they pretty much butchered the competition. Citing the article, they had no less than an 85% Marketshare in '91, and most likely were stronger when they did ship & sell the 8.0m units.
Lets look at it this way:
NES - 8.0m Sold in '89
Competition - Under 1.0m in '89 (11.1% Marketshare)
Playstation 2 - 9.6m Sold in '02 (Source = VGC)
Compeition - 5.8m Sold in '02 (37.6% Marketshare)
So in '89 around 9 million video game consoles sold. In 2002, it was around 15.4m - a 71.1% increase. In 2007, it was 19.625 million consoles. But more importantly: Handhelds sold 15.5m in 2007 versus 8 million in 2002 (and didn't exist in '89)
So we've seen absolutely huge growth (1500% increase) in Handheld sales, and have seen around 117% growth in console sales since 1989...Not too shabby. For comparison, the box office industry has increased 91.8% between 1989 and 2007.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
