Every year from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, Nintendo sold the most hardware. Then, Sony entered the competition, and it became a lot more even. From 1995 to 2000, the Ps1 sold 100 million. Then, the Ps2 sold somewhere around 140 million up to 2005. In the same time, Nintendo sold 30 million N64s, 20 million Gamecubes, ~ 60 million GBCs and ~ 80 million GBAs, leading to Sony selling roughly 240 million vs Nintendo's 190 million. Whether Sony sold the most every single year, or if Nintendo sold the most some years, I can't really tell without doing some more research that I'm not going to do. From 2006 to 2012, Nintendo sold the most by a very wide margin, peaking in the middle 4 years, selling more than twice as much hardware as Sony.

This year, however, it is - for the first time in quite a while - completely even. So far in 2013, Nintendo has sold 10.43 million machines, while Sony has sold 10.15 million. A difference of just 3%!

The first quarter went in Sony's direction. Sony sold 3941k, while Nintendo sold 3606k.
The second quarter was dead on even, with Nintendo selling 2850k and Sony selling 2755k
The third quarter, went Nintendo's way, with them selling 3276k, and Sony selling 2723k.

(This doesn't add up to the exact same as the "yearly" numbers, as VGChartz counts the week ending January 5th as part of 2013, while I count it as 2012, as it's so big it skews up the start of 2013 comparison otherwise)

So, Nintendo has a slightly bigger momentum going for them at the moment, with both the 2DS launch and Pokemon coming right up. They'll most likely have to build up a lead by November 15th/29th, as the Ps4 launch is going to chip in on any lead they might have gotten.

What do you think: Will Nintendo add an 8th year to its streak of being the top dog, or will Sony return to the top, for the first time since the DS lite?

Nintendo. the 3ds will kill everything that moves while the Wii U should gain traction plus the wii and ds should see a small holiday boost .

Nintendo hands down. 3ds alone should put it in number 1,

Nintendo, pokémon is unstoppable

Sony.

Nintendo has the 3DS and the Wii U, while Sony has the PS3, PS4, and PSV. Wii U and PSV cancel each other out, so PS3+PS4 verse 3DS. PS3 is not too far behind 3DS, so if PS4 sells a few million this year they win.

Should be really close though.

3ds is gonna have a monster holiday, it will outsell ps3/ps4/psp/psvita combined in 2013.

Numbers up till now

3DS: about 7 mio

PS3+PSP+Vita: about 10 mio

Checking the numbers wouldn't hurt before making claims like that.

I didn't claim 3ds sold more than those combined SO FAR in 2013, I claimed it WILL sell more in 2013 then those + ps4 combined.

read before you make claims like that.

I know what you meant and I'm telling you that if you'd checked the numbers first, you'd seen that this prediction is completely outlandish. Just think about that for a second, you yourself predicted that the PS4 will sell over 2 mio in 2013, so let's go with that for the sake of this argument, if we add that to the ps3/psp/vita numbers we already have, then the 3DS has to sell over 5 mio more units than those consoles in the next 3 months, does that seem even remotely realistic to you?

OT: Overall the winner will probably still be Nintendo though

3DS will sell 9 more million this year. Don't know if this will be enough to beat PS3/PS4/Vita and PSP combined, but 3DS will be massive this holiday.