I don't know if anyone really cares, but I'm going to go ahead and give some context to Nintendo Life Spans starting at the Nintendo Entertainment System.
| NES | SNES | N64 | Gamecube | Wii | Wii U | Switch | |
| Japan Release Date | July 15, 1983 | November 21, 1990 | June 23, 1996 | September 14, 2001 | December 2, 2006 | December 8, 2012 | March 3, 2017 |
| North America Release Date | October 18, 1985 | August 23, 1991 | September 29, 1996 | November 18, 2001 | November 19, 2006 | November 18, 2012 | March 3, 2017 |
| European Release Date | September 1, 1986 | April 11, 1992 (UK and IRL) | March 1, 1997 | May 3, 2002 | December 8, 2006 | November 30, 2012 | March 3, 2017 |
| Japanese Replacement Time | 7 years, 4 months (2686 days) | 5 Years, 7 Months (2041 Days) | 5 Years, 2 Months (1909 Days) | 5 Years, 2 Months (1905) | 6 Years (2198 Days) | 4 Years, 2 Months (1546 Days) | |
| North American Replacement Time | 5 Years, 10 Months (2135 Days) | 5 Years, 1 Month (1864 Days) | 5 Years, 1 Month (1876 Days) | 5 Years (1827 Days) | 6 Years (2203 Days) | 4 Years, 3 Months (1554 Days) | |
| European Replacement Time | 5 Years, 7 Months (2049 Days) | 4 Years 10 Months (1785 Days) | 5 Years, 2 Months (1889 Days) | 4 Years, 7 Months (1680 Days) | 5 Years, 11 Months (2184 Days) | 4 Years 3 Months (1554 Days) |
A. Europe consistently had the shortest life cycle, though this is due to later releases that slowly got closer to the actual launch of the console
B. The time window to most often appear was 5-6 Years, with the Wii U being the only exception
C. The Wii, Nintendo's most highest selling home console had the longest lifespan, that is if we ignore the NES's long lifespan in Japan
D. The average number in days is about 2047, note I just did the 1983 launch to the Switch Launch and divided by 6 for 6 full lifecycles
Now I will do the Handhelds (I think I will count Gameboy Color as an upgrade just to make the numbers more even all around, and it does strike me as a large enough upgrade to get it's own generational leap for release date)
| Gameboy | Gameboy Color | Gameboy Advance | DS | 3DS | Switch | |
| Japan Release Date |
April 21, 1989 |
October 21, 1998 | March 21, 2001 |
December 2, 2004 |
February 26, 2011 |
March 3, 2017 |
| North America Release Date |
July 31, 1989 |
November 18, 1998 |
June 11, 2001 |
November 21, 2004 |
March 27, 2011 | March 3, 2017 |
| European Release Date |
September 28, 1990 |
November 23, 1998 |
June 22, 2001 |
March 11, 2005 | March 25, 2011 | March 3, 2017 |
| Japanese Replacement Time | 9 years, 6 months (3470 Days) | 2 Years 5 Months (882) | 3 Years, 8 months (1352) | 6 years, 2 months (2277) | 6 Years (2197 Days) | |
| North American Replacement Time | 9 Years 3 Months (3397) | 2 Years, 6 months (936) | 3 Years, 5 Months (1259) | 6 Years, 4 Months (2317) | 5 Years, 11 months (2168) | |
| European Replacement Time | 8 years, 1 month (2978) | 2 years, 6 months (942) | 3 Years, 8 months (1358) | 6 Years (2205) | 5 Years, 11 months (2170) |
I have now gotten lazy, and my computer is acting up, so I will come back to this at sometime in the future to finish it
EDIT: Computer fixed and the chart is finished, its uneven just as I expected, honestly I thought the GBC came out a years or two before it actually did. Lets look at some trends
A. Only the GBC and GBA featured extraordinarily short lifecycles
B. The Gameboy to the surprise of nobody is the longest spanning handheld console
C. After the GBA it appears lifecycles have become a standard six years, though this is only accounting for the two most recent handhelds.
D. Recently handhelds have started to last for longer than their home console counterparts.
My takeaway: Switch will probably not be replaced till 2023, but no later than Holiday 2025
Last edited by badskywalker - on 17 May 2021
