I mean they did have competition, Sega, NEC, Atari, etc. Not only that but they were coming into a market in the US that was hostile towards the idea of games consoles too (period), not just "well the last Nintendo console did poorly". This was "we don't want game systems period, retailers don't even want to stock this thing". 

The NES era is the craziest era by far.

People don't even stop to think prior to Super Mario, most global iconic character properties were largely American or British. Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Superman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Batman, Spider-Man, James Bond, Barbie, Bart Simpson, Wonder Woman, etc. etc. 

There some OK successes from Japan like Speed Racer and Astro Boy, but really people need to realize Super Mario becoming like the most popular character with children by 1990 not just regionally in Japan but globally and especially in the United States ... is absurd.

The NES changed the world, it changed the average living room, it began the explosion of Japanese pop culture globally too. To only consider it in gaming terms doesn't even tell you half the story. 

No disrespect to the Switch/Wii/DS, etc. whatever, but we are talking a completely different level of a sea change here, imagine you are Hiroshi Yamauchi and you took a nothing, no name low rent company that was making instant rice and silly cheap little toys in Japan and in about 15 years, you had some how become one of the biggest brands on the planet rivaling Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, etc. and one of the most iconic Japanese institutions globally ... there's like a home run outside the ball park, the NES/Famicom is like hitting a home run out of the planet's atmosphere. That's a miracle, not a success, success is too small of a word. 

Switch Era


Wii/DS by hardware wise - but software was not as good as Switch or even 3DS.

Overall Switch is best of both worlds - selling a lot of units for hardware, accessories and it has the best first and third party software both in terms of critics and sales.

Easily the Switch era for me due to profits. Wii/DS success was short-lived. NES was actually pretty big, but Nintendo basically had it all to themselves back then. Despite competition in the Switch era, they are still thriving tremendously. I would actually put the NES era above the Wii/DS era in terms of success.

Has to be switch. Profits and longevity.

The Switch era has also seen Nintendo break into the movie business in a big way, with the Mario movie becoming of the biggest animated films of all time at the box office.
Granted there was the live action Mario back in the 90s but that was a trainwreck.

You can make a case for either the Switch or Wii/DS eras as their most successful.

If you ask me which was their most important? NES, without a doubt.

Funny how no one has spoken up for the Wii/DS era

@CourageTCD It was definitely a great era overall, but it was very short-lived. Hard to say it's better than the dominance of the NES era or the longevity of the Switch era. The success of the Wii/DS era depended largely on a group that wasn't in it for the long haul.

Nailed it with this post. It was a very short lived success and the successor in my opinion the better console but no one cared for the wii successor by the time it came out .