InstallBase Forum is where i got 2002 to 2022 NPD numbers and this neogaf retro thread for 1994 - 2001: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/retro-sales-age-thread.981407/page-8

I'm surprised 3DS ever went at the top. But if any time makes sense, around 2013 adds up.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf, A Link Between Worlds and Pokemon Gen X/Y were released that year. Also, you had a build-up of titles already like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7.
The Game Boy was lumping the GB and GBC together (as Nintendo does). Individually, neither would probably be the best-selling in 1999 or 2000.
The Xbox 360 was clearly relying on Kinect and different price options. The Wii was declining sharply by then and PS3 wasn't ever as popular in the US.
NES, PS4, and Switch have the longest streaks. 5 years for each of those Nintendo platforms and 4 (ha) for the PS4. DS and Wii were close in 2008, so the DS narrowly missed a 5-year streak.

That would be the sexy slim model and a price cut boosting it's sales.

3DS managed to become the best selling in 2013 cause of good timing. 3DS was just hitting its prime when the other consoles sales were at its slowest point in years. The DS,Wii,Xbox 360,PS3 were all on a big decline by that point and PS4 & Xbox One came out too late in the year to catch up the 3DS sales. Wii U & PS Vita sales were floundering as well. Had it been any other year it would've been very difficult for the 3DS to become the bestselling console in any year but managed to make it cause of good timing. I'm happy to at least see it make it their once though 

That looks pretty accurate to me, at least from Gen 5 onward.

However, what data we have prior to Gen 5 is generally considered not as accurate as what we have in later generations, as there are some discrepancies. This matters in a generation as close as Gen 4. I was able to procure some numbers second-hand about a decade ago that indicated that the Genesis won in 1991 while the SNES won in 1992, not the other way around, though those same numbers did indeed show the Genesis winning in 1993 & 1994 and the SNES winning in 1995. Shipment data is too close to tell given how regions are defined differently. The NPD Group estimated that the SNES did eventually edge out the Genesis in the U.S., with a final count of 20M vs 18.5M, but the SNES only accomplished that later in the generation, after the PS1 had released.

Regardless of who won specific years, it was indeed a very close back-and-forth between the SNES and the Genesis. The "16-bit Wars" was the closest console generation in the history of the U.S. market. The next closest race was between the PS4 & XBO, but the PS4 beat the XBO every year, even if the differences weren't very big in some years (the PS4 only sold 330k & 370k more than the XBO in 2013 & 2015).

Yeah the 16-bit wars were epic; these kind of close generations are usually the best ones as it drives the competing parties to excel rather than getting complacent.
The fight between 360 and PS3 (globally at least, in the US it was one sided) is another good example of this.

It's gonna continue gonna swapping between the current Nintendo and Sony platforms depending on when each is peaking for at least a while. Switch 2 should get most of the 2nd half of this decade but then it should be back to Playstation unless Xbox makes a comeback.

Sony and Nintendo are the kings. Xbox is the queek. Then Sega is the joker

Quick question, and food for thought. With the rise of handled PC gaming (ie steam deck and co), would it be interesting to add it to the hardware sales and compare it to the switch sales ? Or since the end of PSP & 3DS and the rise of the switch which is a hybrid home & handled console, handled console hardware sales has no reason to appear as a different category I believe.

Wouldn't be a fair contest at all, these handheld gaming PCs will sell only around 5 Million at best compared to Switch's 150 Million plus.