Did Nintendo save gaming with the NES?

[PAOerfulone]

JapaneseGamesLover said:
No, looking back NES sales are subpar to PS1. Play Station saved gaming overall.

Saved it from what exactly?

Growing at a slower pace than it was?

2nd generation (Atari 2600, etc) ~30-35 million

3rd generation (NES, Master System, etc.) 70-75 million

4th generation (SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive, TurboGrafx-16, etc.) 85-95 million

There was also this other thing called the handheld gaming market, which had this thing called The Game Boy which was still going to get this thing called Pokemon which went on to become a global phenomenon. That was still going to no matter what.

Saved it? There was nothing to save. The overall video game market, console AND handheld, was already healthy and steadily expanding.