Sony's PlayStation 2 has long reigned as the best-selling video game console of all time. PS4, despite its massive sales success, ended its run roughly 40 million units behind its older sibling. And while it, too, is still a long way from the top, Switch's extraordinary sales performance has earned it a spot on the podium of best-selling consoles.
With Switch and PS4 having secured their spots among the all-time best-selling consoles, we set out to discover how the rest of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft's hardware stack up. Scroll down or click through the gallery below for our list of the 28 best-selling video game consoles of all time, with additional information on release dates, highest-rated games, and more.
(Some sales figures come straight from the hardware manufacturers, while others are estimated based on the most recently reported numbers and market analysis. Unofficial sales totals are marked with an asterisk (*). The highest-rated games, meanwhile, come from Metacritic.)
If you only care about the biggest sellers, here's the TL;DR Top 5 Best-Selling Consoles list, in order. Scroll down for more details and breakdowns:
- PlayStation 2 (Sony) – 159 million*
- Nintendo DS (Nintendo) – 154.02 million
- Nintendo Switch (Nintendo) – 129.53 million
- Game Boy/Game Boy Color (Nintendo) – 118.69 million
- PlayStation 4 (Sony) – 117.2 million
28. Sega Dreamcast – 9.13 million*
*According to Sega’s 2001 annual report, lifetime sales for the console had hit 8.2 million by March 31, 2001 — the day Sega ended Dreamcast production. In the first half of the following fiscal year, the company reported it had sold an additional 130,000 units in Japan and 530,000 in the U.S, bringing the sales total up to 8.86 million. Remaining inventory for those two territories at the time, according to that same report, totaled 270,000 units. We know, thanks to Sega’s 2002 annual report, it eventually sold through all of that remaining inventory, bringing our sales total up to 9.13 million.
Now, the only figures missing are sales and inventory in Europe and Asia (outside of Japan) after March 31, 2001. However, we can seemingly discount Europe, as remaining European inventory was sold to Bigben Interactive around the time production ended. It’s unknown how many units were left in Asia, though it’s likely a fairly insignificant number considering it was the lowest performing of those four markets. As such, we’re sticking with the known total of 9.13 million.
27. Sega Saturn – 9.26 million*
*As of March 31, 1998, Saturn had sold 8.8 million units when it was discontinued in the U.S. That was the last official update from Sega, though the console would continue to be sold in Japan for another two years. 9.26 million is the final estimate given by research firm CESA. While we don’t have any official numbers to bridge that gap between 8.8 and 9.26 million, CESA’s Dreamcast estimate proved accurate (according to our math), and so we’re going to accept its Saturn total as the best available guess.
26. Wii U – 13.56 million
With 13.56 million units sold, according to official sales data, Wii U is Nintendo’s worst-selling console of all time by a wide margin. However, as former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé told CNN, the lessons learned from Wii U were crucial in propelling the Switch to success.
25. Sega Game Gear – 13.9 million*
*There are several Game Gear sales totals floating around the web: 10.62 million (from a data compilation on NeoGAF), 12 million (from late Sega executive Joe Miller), and “about” 14 million (from former Sega president Hideki Sato). Considering those three sources, we’ve opted to go with the company’s former president, assuming “about” means slightly less than 14 million.
24. PlayStation Vita – 14 million*
*Despite a dedicated fanbase, Sony’s follow-up to the PSP failed to gain a similar foothold in the handheld market, falling well short of its predecessor's sales total. Sony stopped reporting sales figures for Vita fairly early on in its lifecycle, though estimates — from news outlets and industry analysts — put the total somewhere between 10 and 15 million. Gamesindustry.biz reported Vita “sold south of" 15 million units, yet ended its run “marginally ahead” of Wii U, leading us to our rough estimate of 14 million.