Good point. Not sure which console had the bigger comeback, but these have been by all means the two biggest vg comebacks yet. The only bigger that I can imagine (though it won't happen) would be psp3 outselling 4ds (though I truly believe Sony won't make another handheld).

as many have mentioned those are completely different things.  GC to Wii is a company's comback.  PS3 was within the 1 console life it turned around.  Wii was never bad so it wasn't a comeback in and of itself.  If you wanna talk from gen to gen for a company then yeah that's probably it (other than maybe SEGA master system to Genesis or PS3 to 4 and yes I can see the future lol)

In 1992 Sega held 55% of the market share on new console sales in North America, probably more in Europe.  Genesis was selling at a faster rate - in addition to having a significant head start.  By 1994 Nintendo completely dominated the market, and after Sega had to give up on the weaker Genesis and move on to Saturn in 94-95.  SNES continued to sell well even vs Saturn and Playstation in the early years.

The PS3 is a similar story, as Wii dominated market share from launch in 2006 through to 2011.  In 2011 PS3 made gains and as of 2012 is selling much better than Wii and Nintendo has had to move on to Wii U.  Like the Genesis, Wii simply couldn't compete with the superior processing power and third party support of the PS3 at the end of the generation.  While Wii is now a paper weight, PS3 is still a vibrant system.

The two stories are similar, but the difference is that SNES actually made a comeback, by definition, where as PS3 is a comeback in progress which will probably fall short.  Genesis had a head start and was the early leader (for about 1.5 years) in head to head sales.  SNES came back and ended up winning the gen by 20 million units (massive for the market size at the time).  PS3 was second (or third) fiddle to Wii for nearly the first 5 years on the market.  It is making gains now that the Wii is dead as it was built for longevity (like the SNES, unlike the Wii), but the gap is so big it will be tough to overcome.  25+ million will be hard to do, especially with PS4 about to launch.

SNES remains the only comeback leader of a games generation ever (unless you count the 360 head start making Wii also a come from behind leader).  PS3 is making a similar late-gen push, but will likely fall short of a comeback, and will almost definitely never achieve the market dominance SNES was able to do.

Yes Sega held 55% of the marketshare on new consoles in 92 thats nice.

But what you are describing is not a comeback its just merely catching up. Sega sold at a faster rate it had more marketshare and the SNES slowly overtook Sega.

 They won the race. But a comeback means you gain something first. For example 25% of the market but than you lose say 5% and then come back again and regain that marketshare.

To comeback you have to fall behind first by definition. SNES started in a bad position and later overtook Genesis. It was finally catching up after all these years. If you start running and I start 5 minutes later and catch you later, thats catching up.

PS3 started in a bad position like SNES and gained some ground (like SNES) vs 360/Wii, lost it again (unlike SNES) and regained it later (unlike SNES), that is a comrback. You start running, I  start 5 minutes later, catch up abit to you, but you speed up again so I fall behind further again but than I speed up again and we run side by side, if I later get to the finish line first than this was a comeback.

The SNES started later but ran constantly and every step it gained it kept. SNES never lost marketshare it had conquered, from Sega again. 

The PS3 had no comeback yet and the SNES never fullfilled the conditions for a comeback.

Instead they hae sold just as many consoles as Sony so they do not need the headstart.  The market is different from when the 360 released compared to now.  Before, MS was going up against the juggernaught called PS2 and they had to release early.  This time MS has an established market which matches the PS market so the playing field is more balanced.

I'm sure it's been stated before, but I didn't want to read through 250 comments.

First thing that came to mind was Nintendo. Was on top of the world for 2 generations then lost to Sony with the N64 and to both Sony and Microsoft with the Gamecube. Then Wii hit and spanked both of them with tech that was a generation too old. At one point, Nintendo surpassed Toyota as Japan's number 1 company in value because of the Wii.

Not a Nintendo fanboy and own every Sony home console (and plan to buy PS4), but I gotta give it to them. The Wii's surprising dominance in its infant years was way more impressive than PS3 coming back from the ashes, because it didn't have something the PS3 did: huge brand momentum from PS1 and especially PS2.

Another good argument.

I think it's all a matter of perspective, if one looks at it with out much or any bias (hard to come by).

Wii was a tremendous success breaking records left and right after two unsuccessful home console generations. Then again, the wii never really struggled, so one could argue that it wasn't that impressive or surprising, so it shouldn't be called a comeback.

Similar case with ps3. It was selling terrible for a ps home console, people declared it dead and were convinced that it would be discontinued or never top 30m and in September 2009 (or whenever slim launched- that's when I got mine), it made an amazing comeback and is now close to outselling 360 (not that it really matters) and in some areas even the wii. It managed to do sth unprecedented for a home console. Then again, there's a perfect counter argument: it's still third and even if it finishes 2nd or even 1st, it won't matter this late in the generation (won't affect software sales) and it was also a financial failure for Sony.

If you look at it without any bias, you'll realize that there is a counter argument for anything called a comeback. Also, people need to realise that the word is used differently by almost each person, as it is very vague, just like the word flop or even success.