Reconstructing Gaming History: NYTimes From 6/1/1991 - NES @ 9m in 1989?

[Retrasado]

mrstickball said:

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.

 

 

I like how handheld sales have increased ∞% since 1989. Now that my friend, is an impressive increase....