Most Games Sold By Console 1977 - 2024

In this animation, you'll see a visual representation of game sales over the decades, complete with a preview of the most popular game of the year shown. The king of sales was the Sega Master System as it sold close to 20x game units as the number of consoles sold, 18:1, I don't really trust those numbers, but they were high across multiple sources. Maybe that high ratio was reported in order to attract more game developers. Normal sales ratios were 5:1 up to 12:1.

Final question, which console do you think will dominate game sales in the future?

[Daniel-zowz]

The fact that the PS2 is still up there is crazy!!!

[csmxltq]

it's crazy how much games the xbox 360 ps3 and wii sold back when there were many fun games and not just a hand full

[RevanSecura]

PS2 says "nobody will ever beat me."

Nintendo Switch says "Are you sure about that? because the way things are going I'm going to open a can of whoop-ass on you before my time of being popular dies out for good.

[dimitrideckers]

3:40 A Mistake? It says "Mario 64" but still shows Yoshi's Island.

[NoahTheCoolKid]

My guy space invaders on the Atari 2600 did not look like that💀

[steveweidig]

PS2 2007: Nothing will ever beat me
PS2 2017: Why do I hear boss music?

[dylanmajor]

That's nice but there are some errors:
Most the of the consoles report game sales even after Lifespan ended. The lastest numbers from those discontinued consoles and their date: PS1 in March 2007, PS2 and PSP in March 2012, PS3 in March 2019, Wii in March 2021, DS in September 2022 and 3DS in March 2024.
Also, Super Mario World was popular on the SNES, not NES and you have the wrong gif for Super Mario 64.

[roygoodhand]

Can the Switch put Nintendo back on top for the first time in over 20 years, or will the PS5 be able to catch up and continue Sony's reign of dominance over the venerable 130+ year old company that single-handedly saved the entire industry 40 years ago?

The recent barrage of Pokemon games has certainly helped Nintendo, but they need to get back on top before GTA 6 comes out.

...speaking of the sixth game in a series, isn't it about time to start thinking about Super Smash Bros. 6? Mario Kart 9, maybe? Pikmin 5? Even a revival of the Star Fox series? Nintendo has so many options.

[DefaultFlame]

4:04 Took until the end of '98 for the NES to be dethroned, and it was still selling games. Damn.

Edit: God damn, PS2 is king. No surprise really, I might not have owned one, being a Nintendo boy before becoming a PC man, but everyone and their grandma had a PS2 back in the day.

Edit2: Fucking spam bots in the comments.

[leokimvideo]

Really exposes how Playstation 5 missed the market. Too expensive and not a huge leap forward after PS4

[Patheticus]

I have 44 Playstation 2 games, the last ones I played were Gran Turismo 5 and GTA 4 on Playstation 3... I was stuck in the past and it's one of the best memories I'll never regret!
I haven't played new games since 2012

[robertobarros]

6:08 but there are only 8.1 billion people on earth

[scmtuk]

Now do one but with the ratio of "game sold to consoles sold" i.e. "catchment rate".

PS2 sold 1, 537, 000, 000 per roughly 158, 000, 000 which is a ratio of 9.72
PS4 sold 1, 419, 500, 000 per roughly 117, 200, 000 which is a ratio of 12.11
Switch sold 1, 235, 820, 000 per roughly 141, 320, 000 which is a ratio of 8.74

So, even though PS2 has sold more games in total, it also sold more consoles, whereas PS4 sold more games _per_ system, which in my opinion is a better comparison.

[TheAgarillobob]

nice time to do my part and buy more switch games

[wilsonperez]

The Wii is my favorite console of all time!

[steveweidig]

Interesting to note is also that all those digital-only titles in the Nintendo eShop on the Switch are not counted by Nintendo towards Software sales. If they were, then the Switch would probably already had overtaken the PS2 a long time ago...

[TimeToStartOver]

I'm from the future. The Google Gamestation X-Fusion brain chip was sold over 8 Billion times. Only available for Metaverse 3.0 or higher. Get your brain port now.

[iissac]

PS5 sales were destroyed by scalpers. They were selling for $1, 000 now their $300 used lol

[hectarius]

Considering the insane amount of pirated games for the ps2 it is safe to say that it's the most played console in history. Also, could anyone tell me how did the Master System sell more games than the SNES? It's just crazy to me.

[stabilini]

PS2 numbers are at least 3 or 4 times higher, as software piracy was a hugh thing that time.