I recently made a list of the bestselling consoles in the U.S each year since 1986. Went through numerous different sources to find the most accurate data.
Some of these were estimated before 2005, but these estimations came from reasonable sources and are likely still for the most part completely accurate. Between 2002-2005 though does get a little bit tricky since the GBA & PS2 were both so close in U.S sales those years, but Nintendo in e3 2004 showed that the GBA outsold the PS2 in the U.S since the GBA launch so it's definitely safe to assume that at least somewhere between 2002 & 2003 the GBA outsold the PS2, I assume it was both years but PS2 may have outsold it possibily one of those years. For 2004 & 2005 the GBA was still hot with shipments and majority of the sales in it's lifetime came from NA while the PS2 had similiar shipment numbers but had sales more evenly distributed which made me assume GBA most likely outsold the PS2 those years as well.
This list surprised me in several ways:
-For one thing, I wasn't aware how dominant the Genesis was in the U.S in it's prime, despite being a newcomer against the dominant Nintendo for 3 consecutive years the Genesis outsold both the SNES and GB in the U.S. Really goes to show how much Sega fucked up in the future by once being the king of consoles in the U.S to completely irrelavant the very next generation
-What's also surprising is that 22 out of the past 38 years a Nintendo console was the bestselling console for the year in the U.S, nearly 60% of the time. It's amazing how much some people exagerate Nintendo's failures as if flops like the Gamecube, N64 and Wii U are the norm while their successes are the exception. When it's the complete opposite, Nintendo consoles being successful is the norm while their failures are a major exception.
What do you guys think about this?
Last edited by javi741 - on 17 January 2024
