Top 20 Best Selling Video Game Consoles of All Time

Following Sega’s exit from the video game console market, Microsoft was able to cement itself as a top contender only a little while later with the original Xbox. The Xbox was notable for being the first console to have a built in hard disk drive, ending the need for memory cards, but perhaps its biggest revolution was Xbox Live. With its built in ethernet port, players were able to easily battle it out online against other players in a variety of games. Speaking of games, the Xbox launched with one of the most important games of all time, “Halo: Combat Evolved” and was able to reach even greater heights with its follow up “Halo 2,” allowing for the console to sell a very respectable 24 million units.

The oldest console on this list, the Atari 2600 is definitely a relic of its time. Despite fierce competition from both Intellivision and ColecoVision, the 2600 was able to sell 30 million units, which was a huge number at the time. Its most famous game is the arcade port of “Pac-Man,” which sold an incredible 8 Million copies, however its most infamous game was “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” which is considered by many to be the worst game of all time. Unfortunately a series of terrible decisions by Atari during this console's lifespan led to the notorious and well documented video game crash of 1983.

In a world where Nintendo dominated, Sega rose to the occasion with the Genesis in the late 80s. Also known as the Megadrive outside of North America, the Genesis initially struggled against its competitors. However with the release of the legendary title “Sonic the Hedgehog,” Sega was able to give Nintendo a good run for its money for a good chunk of the console's life span. It also had an edge against Nintendo with its more adult oriented games such as Mortal Kombat, which was uncensored compared to its SNES counterpart. The Genesis was a huge success for Sega, and sold an excellent 30.75 million units.

Nintendo’s first proper foray into 3D Games, the Nintendo 64 had the unfortunate role of being the main competitor to the original PlayStation. Despite never reaching the same heights as Sony’s juggernaut, the Nintendo 64 has gone down in history as one of the most important consoles ever. The selection of games it has are unmatched, with the likes of “Super Mario 64,” “GoldenEye 007,” and of course, “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” which is still considered by many today to be one of the greatest games of all time. Although Nintendo views its sales as underwhelming, the system was still able to move 32.93 million units.

How do you improve upon the great success that was the NES? Make it Super of course! While it did sell less than its predecessor, the SNES was revolutionary for its time, and was the home for some major video game franchises, such as “Super Mario,” “Street Fighter,” “The Legend of Zelda” and “Final Fantasy." Released in the very early 90s around the world, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System sold a total of 49.1 million units, and continues to be a popular system among collectors even to this day.

Though a lot of consoles featured on this list initially had rocky starts, no system had it worse than Microsoft’s Xbox One. After its grand unveiling, Microsoft received a lot of backlash when it was revealed that the console would be always online, and that people would not be able to trade their games, something that even Sony openly mocked them for. Fortunately for everyone Microsoft quickly backtracked on all of this, and the Xbox One went on to sell around 58 million units, proving that it hadn’t alienated its loyal fanbase. Honestly, with how badly things went at the beginning for this system, it’s a miracle that it’s even on this list at all.

The youngest console on this list, the PlayStation 5 is such a huge success for Sony that it’s already the fourteenth best selling system of all time. In just a short amount of time, the PS5 has sold 59.3 million units, a number which continues to increase every day. According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmed, it recently shipped almost five times more than its competitor the Xbox Series X/S did within the same period. Although one of its greatest weaknesses is the small number of exclusive games, perhaps as time moves on we’ll be getting a lot more, which will certainly help increase the sales numbers to even greater heights.

It’s the console that started it all for Nintendo and put them on the map as a dominating force in the Video Game industry. Following the video game crash of 1983, the retail market wanted nothing to do with Video Game consoles, however, in a genius play by Nintendo, they packaged the console with something unique... the toy robot known as R.O.B. This helped get the system in stores and revitalized the video game market in North America, selling a whopping 61.91 million consoles, and paved the way to some of the most groundbreaking games of all time, such as The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.

The Nintendo 3DS had quite a battle getting onto this list! Officially unveiled at E3 2010 and released worldwide beginning in February 2011, the 3DS had a very rocky start, launching to disappointing sales which led to a significant price reduction from $249 to $169 less than six months later. Luckily for them, this move proved to be an enormous success, and the console’s unique features, like stereoscopic 3D, the StreetPass function, and the Virtual Console helped to move even more copies. As of September 2022, the encompassing 3DS family has moved 75.94 million units.

Oh look, another handheld console! But it’s from a different company this time! While it may seem borderline primitive today, the PSP was a major and revolutionary entertainment device at the time, leading to immense success, with roughly 80 million units sold worldwide. Launched in Japan only ten days after its competitor, the Nintendo DS, the PSP shocked the world with its innovations, including the high-end graphics card, massive 4.3 inch viewing screen, and TV tuner. Helped by successful titles like “Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories,” “Daxter,” and “Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII,” the PSP was the first console to finally rival and match Nintendo in the handheld gaming market.

Fault Nintendo with whatever you want, but there’s no denying that they can make some stellar handheld consoles. Released in Japan in March 2001 and North America the following June, the Advance had a major market domination over its competitors, which included the N-Gage, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Tapwave Zodiac. Yeah, remember those? No one else does either, and there’s a good reason for that. The Advance saw great success with titles like “Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire,” “Mario Kart: Super Circuit,” and “Super Mario Advance” among many, many others. Over it’s staggering nine-year lifespan which ended in 2010, the Game Boy Advance sold 81 and a half million units.

The Xbox 360 squashed the poor PS3 like a bug under its shoe for the first few years of release, despite some major reliability problems. This generation of gaming is arguably considered to be the biggest and most important in terms of graphical and gameplay innovations, and the 360 certainly did its fair share for that distinction with game-changing titles like “Gears of War,” “Halo 3,” “Mass Effect,” and “BioShock” to its name. The 360 sold 84 million copies throughout its lifetime, putting it just under the PS3, before it was mercifully and honorably put down in April of 2016.

With an underdog tale which could rival the likes of “Rocky,” the PlayStation 3’s storied and troubled history is a thing of beauty. Announced at E3 2005 and released in Japan and North America in November 2006, the PlayStation 3 was basically laughed out of existence due to its extremely high price tag of $599 for the 60 GB model. Shockingly, no one was willing to pay $600 for a console, even with this fancy new thing called a blu ray player, and the PS3 significantly lagged behind. However, after the release of the Slim, the PS3 was given a much-needed adrenaline shot, allowing it to recover and move roughly 87.4 million units, beating its rival the Xbox 360.

Anyone not living under a rock for the 2006 Christmas season remembers what a fiasco trying to find one of these bad boys was. Demand for the Wii was extremely high due to the family-oriented demographic and its fancy new motion control technology, and the console sold out everywhere, leading to many a child's disappointing Christmas. The Wii was still selling well over three years later when it broke the single month sales record in December of 2009, selling nearly four million units in that month alone due to a price cut and notable releases like “New Super Mario Bros Wii.” In the end the console managed to sell 101.63 million units throughout its lifetime.

Sony’s debut into the video game market proved to be a monumental success, as the original PlayStation has sold 102 and a half million units over its healthy life and put Sony on the gaming path that it is currently dominating. Throughout the late 90s, games like “Final Fantasy VII” and “Metal Gear Solid” were enormously influential for the future of the medium, and PlayStation games were still being produced until March 2006, less than one year before the release of its grandson, the PS3. At a time when Nintendo and Sega were dominating the home market, in came Sony, relegating Nintendo to an unforeseen second place at the time and all but eliminating Sega from contention.

Still being supported to this day, the PlayStation 4 was such a big success for Sony that it has managed to become their second highest selling console of all time. Considering all the incredible games it has, such as “God of War,” “Marvel’s Spider-Man,” and “Ghost of Tsushima,” it’s no wonder that the PS4 has sold an insane 117.2 million units. Although it’s coming near to the end of its life span, it’s recently been reported by Stephen Totilo that half of all active PSN users still play through their PlayStation 4, proving that for the time being, Sony’s eighth generation console is here to stay.

While most certainly viewed as a dinosaur today, the Game Boy was an unprecedented success when it was released in 1989. While handheld gaming was around before the Game Boy, this console perfected the idea and found the perfect demographic to guarantee immense success. For the first time, female gamers were getting in on the action, as studies showed that 46% of Game Boy players were female, compared to 29% of NES and 14% of SNES players. This, the console’s bundling with the always-popular “Tetris,” and the phenomenon that was “Pokemon Red and Blue” led the Game Boy and its variants to sell 118.69 million units throughout their lifetimes.

Following the disaster that was the Wii U, Nintendo knew they had to lock in for their next console iteration. By combining their home and handheld consoles into one, Nintendo produced their second most successful platform to date, the hybrid system known as the Nintendo Switch. The experiment has paid off big time, and thanks to some remarkable titles such as “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Super Mario Odyssey” the Switch has sold an astonishing 141.32 units. The Nintendo Switch continues to climb higher and higher on the best selling consoles of all time list, so don’t be surprised if it hits number one in a future version of this video!

The system that finally killed the persistent Game Boy, the Nintendo DS is the highest selling handheld console of all time, as all of its models have combined to sell an astounding 154 million units. The DS was not only popular, but is arguably the most influential handheld device of all time, as it proudly introduced many firsts for handheld gaming, including dual LCD screens working together, wireless connectivity, and most importantly: a touch screen. While these are commonplace now, they were groundbreaking in 2004. When you combine these features with its great lineup of games, it’s easy to see why the DS is the second highest selling console of all time.

What is unsurprisingly the highest selling console of all time, the PS2 was a one-of-a-kind device that seemingly everyone owned. The console has sold roughly 155 million units throughout its lifetime before finally being discontinued in 2013 - thirteen long and prosperous years after launch. The PS2 became the first console to ship over 100 million units, a feat which was accomplished with the help of some of the most memorable games ever including “Metal Gear Solid 2” and “Grand Theft Auto III” and its spinoffs. A mind-blowing 1.5 billion games have been sold for the console, and those games and the console itself undoubtedly have a place in gaming history.

How many of these consoles do you own? Let us know in the comments below!