Really well written this, thanks.

I always knew about PSone having a slow start but what I didn't know was just how popular N64 was in the US at first. Outselling PS1 in 96 almost even though it was only out for a fraction of the time and outselling it for most of 97, very interesting. Also its peak year being bigger than any of the SNES or Mega Drives, pretty amazing for the generations 2nd place console.

I know Saturn actually put up a good fight at first with the PS in Japan, even outselling it on a regular basis, Virtua Fighter was a big deal in Japan back then.

Its interesting to note that the decline in home computers helped it in Europe too, I think that was definitely a factor along to a mid gen bump in interest due to the N64s late arrival and some key games over 97/98 such as Tomb Raider 2, Resident Evil 2 and Gran Turismo. Hype for games like MGS was building too. Like you say, slow burner.

Thanks again, really good read this.

Also... What won in the US? SNES or Genesis? Looks real tight in those graphs.

The SNES barely won in the US, it was 23m for the former and 21.4-22.4m for the Genesis. Now that you mention that, the Genesis numbers are not accurate here on VGChartz.

I've always wondered if they were accurate or not, PSone seems wrong on here too and NO DATA FOR THE MASTER SYSTEM AT ALL!

Did it really beat the NES in Europe?

Great read Shadow.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

I think it's also important to keep in mind that this was Sony's first games console so it certainly will have taken a bit of time for them to build up consumer confidence in the product.

I can't say about Europe, but the Master System did beat the NES in the UK! As a matter of fact, the SMS beat every Nintendo console ( minus the Wii) in the UK.

I find your choice of numbers ad example quite a bit selective... However, there are some counter examples:

1 - The 3DS started slow and did not really pick up until Nintendo cut down the price and release Mario Kart on it (I think this was it, but it might have been a couple of games).

2 - The Xbox One and Wii U had VERY good launches, both system's first week were comparable to the PS4's (not as good, but very good).. neither is expected to reach 25 million, I'd be surprised if the Wii U reach 15...

3 - The Dreamcast was breaking sales record in its first year or so... still it's considered a failure by many

4 - The PS1 was clearly the dominant 32-bit console from the day it was released, compared to the Saturn everybody knew it was "on top" ... maybe what held it back a little at first was people waiting for Nintendo's entry... then the system disapointed enough people that they made the jump to Sony's system when came the time to upgrade...

You got any links to data for this? Not that I don't believe you but I'd just love to see something concrete on this. I remember reading the NES sold over a Million in the UK but have never seen anything for the SMS.

To be honest, this is where I found the data. I don't know if it can be considered a very reliable source.. :/

Part of it was being new meant Sony had to earn trust in gamers. Nintendo was established with Mario and Zelda, Sony had to start new IPs such as Crash or manage to get others to come over with Final Fantasy being the big one.