Pokemon was basically this on the 3DS, to the same extent that GTA was on the PS2. Speaking of which, Grand Theft Auto 5 created a major surge in PS3 and 360 sales, despite being exclusively available on aging hardware at the time. Major exclusives, like Halo 5 and Uncharted 4, still push a lot of hardware on their opening weeks alone. And games as minor (relatively speaking) as Persona 5 can cause hardware bumps.
Even Mario Kart 8 was one of these, seeing how its release seems to have been a major contributor to the Wii U's relative height in 2014 and 2015. Not to mention the Switch version, which is not doing much worse than Breath of the Wild.
That said, you will sometimes have games that seem to sell consoles, but aren't necessarily remembered well or played for long periods of time. See Titanfall and Watch Dogs.
Love and tolerate.
