Let's take a look at the major console sales for the past couple of generations (numbers in millions of course):

3rd Gen:

NES: 62, Sega Master System: 12

4th Gen:

SNES: 49, Genesis: 30

5th Gen:

PS: 104, N64: 33, Saturn: 9

6th Gen:

PS2: 158, Xbox: 25, GC: 22, Dreamcast: 8

7th Gen:

Wii: 101, PS3: 83, 360: 81

8th Gen (so far):

PS4: 7.2, Wii U: 6.0, Xbone: 4.3

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As you can see from the sales data, clearly every generation seems to have one console that does much better than its competitors and outsells them by a rather large margin.  4th gen may have been somewhat close in competition but even then the gap between the SNES and Genesis is about 20 million, which is still relatively large. 7th gen is perhaps the most interesting since the PS360 are neck in neck and the PS3 LT sales might be close to Wii given the PS consoles' long legs, but the Wii dominated the other consoles throughout a good part of the gen and still has a 20+ million or so sales lead. Although it is quite early to say but In the current 8th gen the PS4 seems to be becoming the dominant console of choice. In the other gens, the NES, PS1 and PS2 have absolutely crushed the competition.

So the question is, why do you think this is the case? Why is it that one console seems to always take a massive sales lead over its competitors every gen?

I think and this is my opinion, but and once again MY OPINION is that the console that typically tends to dominate usually a cheaper price tag + a more diverse list of genre games. That's what I seem to think...

That's not exactly the case, all 3 console were very competitive last gen. There was a clear winner but I don't think the Wii was dominant like the PS2 or NES.

What? I'd only call the Atari 2600, NES, PS1 and PS2 highly dominant...

My take? Gaming is social.


Back when your friend had a NES, you wanted an NES too so when you went over each others houses you'd be familiar with the controls, you could trade games, you could bring games over each others houses etc, and the games everyone talked about and excited about were NES games so you got excited about it.



Then games like Madden and COD became the big games. Multiplatform sure, but nothing sucked more then playing your friend in Madden if he had it on a different console. Then online became the dominant form of online play and you NEEDED the same console just to play him half of the time.

SNES and Wii weren't that dominant. Sure they sold more, but not a lot like PS1 or PS2.

how on earth is 4th a gen with a highly dominant console? its just 9m between snes and the genesis.

and in the 7th the Wii isnt highly dominant, PS3 and 360 will easily pass the 85 million mark and end at the 88-92 million. Wii will end around 102 million i wouldnt consider that domination looking at the total sales of the gen. just a 10-15 million difference? market share is in the 30's% for everyone. no way is it "domination".

That's actually a very interesting take. I think that may explain why the PS360 has been able to close the gap with the Wii so much as of late. 3rd party support may very well be the secret sauce.

Wii wasn't that dominant last gen. Well it was for the first half but the ps3 and 360 did pretty well too.

My fellow platform holders, ask not what your 3rd party publisher can do for you, ask what you can do for your 3rd party publisher.