Ouch, industry is fighting to stay alive. Looking forward to the final XB data.

We're supposed to see how the industry is collapsing and therefore the disastrous X1 sales are understandable?

PS4 launch sales surpassed even the PS2s, indicating PS is even bigger now then it was then.  but lets forget reality and go with your opinion lolz. 

Sony was propped up in 07-08 thanks to the PSP, with Vita underperforming and PS3 dying they have to mainly rely on PS4. Luckily PS4 is doing very well and should do even better next year. Not sure what Nintendo can do other than release a new handheld and console. Xbox numbers are and always have been terrible.

Man, Sony's shipments were incredible during their "doom days". I had no idea.

Definitely paints a dire picture for the future though. :-/

Hopefully this will shed some light on how things really are. And hopefully put an end to this specific brand of  sensationalism on the internet these days.

Looking at platforms from the last 3 generations, NOT INCLUDING HANDHELDS.

GEN 5 TOTAL: 144M

1. PSX 104M
2. N64 32M
3. SS 8

GEN 6 TOTAL: 211M +37%

1. PS2 157M
2. XB 25M
3. GC 21M
4. DC 8M

GEN 7 TOTAL: 265M +27%

1. Wii 101M
2. PS3 83M
3. 360 81M

Not as flashy as graphs but you get the general gist. And this is just looking at the last 3 generations. Every generation there has been more than a 20% increase in combined console sales. So I reeeeeeeeeeaaaallllly don't know where this whole doom and gloom nonsense comes from. But hey, if we really want to add handheld gaming to this list, then by all means lets do it properly. ADD the IOS and ANDROID device sales there too!!!!!! Cause while they may not be gaming on the PSP, vita, DS or 3DS anymore, they sure as hell are gaming on their phones. 

EDIT: And something else about the last generation. It was combined the most expensive console generation in history. In the PS2's 5th year, you could buy a brand new PS2 for under $150. As at the launch of the PS4, no to hell with that.. right now, six month into the new generation, a brand new PS3 is still around $250. If sony and MS can somehow make the PS4/XBO get to as low as $200 in say three years, this gen will also put up some crazy large numbers.

I think you hit the nail on the head. 

Dedicated handhelds won't last much longer, home consoles still have some life in them though.

I think it's fair to remove handhelds from the comparison.

Great thread.

Be interesting if you could do separate handheld and home console charts to see how large the drop off has been for each segment. I suspect home consoles will pick up quite nicely over the next 3-4 years once the initial transitionary lag period is over. Handhelds on the other hand have no chance.