Most Popular Console Brands 1972 - 2024

This is an update of the video "Brands With Best-Selling Video Game Consoles 1972 - 2019" with more accurate numbers, larger images of the consoles launched and easier to read facts about those consoles. This compares the major players in the gaming console wars from the beginning. I also added a brand that was a major player in Russia, Dendy. The running total is about 2/3 of all console sales in the world, since many small brands and clone makers did not make the list. Bonus: The end of the video features an original song called "Game On Power On".
It all began with the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.
Magnavox releases the first game console in 1972. The Odyssey for $99 ($740 in 2024). Magnavox kept releasing updated versions of the Odyssey until 1978.
In 1975 Atari released its Pong arcade game as a console. $99 ($600 in 2024).
In 1976 COLECO joined the console race with the Telstar. $99 ($600 in 2019). While Nintendo prepared to launch its own hardware. The Color Game-TV.
The famous Atari 2600, which supported ROM game cartridges, was released the following year, in 1977. For $199 ($860 in 2019). Magnavox followed with Odyssey2, also featuring ROM cartridges. For $179 ($724 in 2019)
Mattel also released a 2nd gen console, the Intellivision. $299 ($1,110 in 2019)
ColecoVision launched in 1982, influencing the NES development, with it's smooth graphics and performance. For $175 ($715 in 2019)
Nintendo released the Famicon in 1983. Later launching it as the NES $179 ($420 in 2019)
The Master System was launched by Sega at the end of 1986. $199 ($460 in 2019)
NEC TurboGrafx-16 launched as the first 16-bit game console even thought it actually used an 8-bit chip. $249 ($550 in 2019)
Sega Mega Drive was released in 1988, then as the Genesis in NA. $189 ($410 in 2019)
Nintendo launches Super Famicom at the end of 1990. ¥25,000 ($¥47,000 in 2019). After a redesign, the Super Famicom is launched as the SNES in 1991. $175 ($715 in 2019)
In 1993 Sega released a game console for kids, the Pico. $139 ($250 in 2019). Followed by the Sega Saturn just before the Playstation launch. $399 ($610 in 2019). The first Playstation launched a month after the Sega Saturn. $299 ($500 in 2019)
Released in 1996, Nintendo 64 was the last home console to use cartridges. $199 ($325 in 2019)
The Dreamcast was the first sixth generation console but sadly Sega's last game console. $199 ($310 in 2019)
The Playstation 2 is the best-selling console of all-time, since 2000. $199 ($300 in 2019)
In November 2001 Microsoft joined the console race with the powerful Xbox $299 ($431 in 2019)
GameCube launched a couple of months before the Xbox. $199 ($300 in 2019)
Microsoft quickly released their second console 4 years later. $299 ($400 in 2019)
Playstation 3, even with its high price, was sold at a loss of $240 per unit. $499 ($640 in 2019)
The Wii was Nintendo's best-selling console, selling over 100 million units. $249 ($320 in 2019)
In 2009 PlayStation 3 Slim was released by Sony as a thinner, lighter and cheaper PS3. $299
After the Wii's market success Nintendo launched the Wii U in 2012, which was it's worst selling console. Selling just over 13M units at $299.
Xbox One was released in 2013 as a complete entertainment system for $499.
Playstation 4 launches in 2013 and is as successful as first Playstation. Selling 102 million units. Playstation 4 Pro was an update in 2016 that added 4K,UHD,USB 3.1 and much more. $399
In 2017 the Xbox One X launched, adding UHD, 4K, FreeSync, speed, and much more for $499.
The Switch has been Nintendo's fastest selling console to date. 40 million units sold to date at $299.

[@davecool42]

7:30 Was not expecting the music change lol

[@MarcoCamacho]

But was awesome 🤘🏻

[@thesegacampgamerandwerecam7504]

😆😆😆 I wasn't either!

[@domo_anubisu]

Do you know that first music ?

[@viejonalulito4608]

42 years dominating, what a beast

[@kevinmachine9310]

Until Sony PS 6 comes out in 2030. Then it's game over for kiddie Nintendo.

[@LeChuck1717]

@@kevinmachine9310 you probably thought the same about PS5, but then it was just a giant flop...

[@kevinmachine9310]

@LeChuck1717 it's already sold 60 Million ! You consider that a flop ?

[@RC-14]

@@kevinmachine9310 I thought the first reply was a joke, then I saw the second.

[@scmtuk3662]

@@kevinmachine9310 Compared to the Nintendo Switch's 140 million? Yes.

[@NOTHlNG]

I'm with Sony but gotta admit that focusing on handhelds was a genius business concept from Nintendo.

[@_Over9K_]

Im missing The 3DO, licensed by EA and manufactured by different companies (Panasonic, Goldstar...) or maybe am I missing something?

[@jrsc01.]

If you watch this late at night, and accidently fall sleep, you'll be scarily woken up at about 7:28 into the video...

[@user-cs2mx4lt3q]

it's unfortunate because back in the 90s and 80s there was competition there was more than just 3 console giants

[@MrVariant]

Lol less bugs and no crazy dlc back then 😂. There's still fun stuff at least once in a while.

[@niocalsgreogiro]

Let's not forget that nowadays above giants like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony is the PC master race and mobile gaming market

[@MrVariant]

@@niocalsgreogiro yeah pc and mobile have the advantage with digital only and lower prices for their versions, which is insane to console tax, or pay for demos (ps plus premium) with some demos being exclusive to steam with ad versions for free mobile.

[@Lsvy97]

​@@MrVariantLess bugs? 80s games were entirely bugged. And instead of DLCs you had to buy literal hardware upgrades for some games to work.

[@MrVariant]

@@Lsvy97 we didn't have early access disclosure (let alone video footage/reddit to search bugs, which ff6 was king even with pixel remaster at launch) nor have to unlock characters on those paid "hardware upgrades" back then (marvel ultimate alliance 3 gauntlet unlocks and stranger of paradise must do postgame on hard mode to play as new jobs are very inconvenient). I do acknowledge the quality of life helps, minus tomb raider/tifa censorship, in the modern day.

[@ers-tj4to]

If Nintendo brought back an updated Super Nintendo with all the old exclusives (Contra, Castlevania, Zelda) I would definitely get it.

[@toyotaboyhatman]

Umm.. 3DO not on the list (when it sold 2 million units), yet the Phillips CD-i showed up on the list?

[@shiningkingghidora]

What about the Neo-Geo

[@robertmatthews9650]

Turbo Grafx 16 was underrated.

[@JediLMS520]

i have a wii u and it can play turbograft 16 for some reason but im not complaining

[@passeiosbaratos]

Me pergunto onde esta a SNK nessa lista? Só o Neo Geo Pocket vendeu 2 milhoes de unidades, apesar de nao existir lista oficial de vendas, estimam de 10 milhoes, se for colocar Neo Geo Cartucho, Neo Geo Cd... Tambem nao aparece a Panasonic com o 3DO...

[@npaladin2000]

Genesis Mini? TG16 Mini? Steam Deck?

[@fabolous2006]

Nintendo is a monster and now the switch 2 is coming out

[@MrVariant]

Switch had affordability, especially the lite model. Hard to justify buying an upgrade now, especially with superior PC hybrids that charge less for the same digital games with better performance, and their obsession with Mario games. It'll be like the 3ds and struggle for a bit imo. Nintendo imo doesn't launch well with good successor systems other than maybe snes or wii (gamecube was nice but it undersold). I do feel console gaming crashed between the layoffs, lack of first party games and bonehead upgrades (ps5 slim digital with no vertical stand and xbox series s carbon black, which the series x has no small print physicals so it is undermined).

[@svenbalzer6763]

Hello, SNES was perhaps the Popularst after Xbox and PlayStation, and the NES were very Popular Too. Lg Sven BALZER

[@georgegamergr8417]

Very nice video 👍

[@max_biker4149]

Like for Dendy

[@Swagkia_Kuchiki]

It's only a matter of time before Sony catches up going by the trend here.

[@JediLMS520]

I always thought that nintendo competed with sony and microsoft but it seems that they were trying to compete with nintendo

[@Matze_Supercomputer]

My favorite console is the ATARI VCS 2600 System 🙂

[@marcusandolivia2025]

Team Sega playstation and Atari

[@CAB-yu8uj]

Yay!! A sequel! 😊

[@gc5707]

Dendy deberia estar adentro de las cifras de Nintendo 😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅

[@jrsc01.]

What about keyboard computers like Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore, BBC Micro, Amiga etc... loved these too 😂

[@NOTHlNG]

The answer is in your question: computers. The list is about consoles.

[@cirrasretrogames]

Are these numbers just from USA? Because Sega released SG-1000 in 1983 in Japan... What about Philco Ford with Telejogo in South América?

[@TaksiMaksi-wz3xp]

Request: Most Popular CMS 1998 - 2024 and Most Popular Video Games 2000 - 2024

[@TaksiMaksi-wz3xp]

Hello!

[@DavidKimFX]

Wow, I always thought Nintendo entered the scene with the NES in the 80s. I never knew they released a console way back the 70s.

[@user-bn2dq2jk5l]

Hmm very interesting information 1 Nintendo Switch🫠 2 ps5😎 3 Xbox Series x😹 4 Sega 😑 7 Derby 😒

[@eduardodeazevedo1678]

brazilian brand TecToy???

[@ilyasovich]

Nintendo did almost the same sales as all other brands COMBINED

[@kieragard]

We'll they had a 15-20 years head start on the competition.

[@ilyasovich]

@@kieragard Sure, but except for very few flops (Wii U and N64) all of their consoles sold very well

[@kieragard]

@@ilyasovich they came in during the video game crash when they were literally the only ones in the market for almost two decades. History was on their side but consoles for them in recent history were more miss than anything else but the handheld market was what really kept them on top.

[@ilyasovich]

@@kieragard All of their handhelds were smash hits, NES and SNES were too, N64 not that much, GameCube and especially the Wii was a big success, WiiU was a flop, the switch is a smash hit, so...

[@kieragard]

@@ilyasovich that's what I said, in modern times Wii was their only hit. Handhelds is what's keeping them afloat the last twenty years.

[@theconsolecast]

what do you use to make these

[@iznax9]

Nintendo = Gaming and Gaming = Nintendo

[@Great_Fenix]

А как же например стим дек?

[@arielleon1197]

Sega esta durmiendo 😢, en algún momento se va a despertar.

[@Nate-Dawg921]

I'm mostly a Nintendo man.

[@IlsonX]

Xbox and PlayStation

[@domo_anubisu]

What is this music ?

[@CaptainGizmo]

It's called Epic Motivation by Roman Cano

[@domo_anubisu]

@@CaptainGizmo thanks bro

[@25kevz]

RoG Ally, Steam deck not included?

[@jrz.zrj1461]

These are portable PCs, not consoles.

[@RevanSecura]

Nintendo says "Ladies and Gentlemen gamers of all ages I present to you the once and future king of console gaming." Sony says "come to the dark side we have cookies." Microsoft says "Are you not entertained?" all other brands say "All we are is dust in the wind."

[@superavel]

Nice. People thinking Sony is winning didn't look at the stats and do their maths.

[@alexruz3358]

Where's Valve's Steam Deck?

[@blueworld1402]

Nintendo is legend,I'm a ps(not fan)player.

[@user-kt3di3zk5b]

I would be good to idea to do console wars with percentage values of the market shares. Nientendo is all the time on the first time mostly due to bast-selling consoles from 80s ans early 90s. Now Sony is chasing Nintento. With percentage values of the market share we can should which company was the best in the different periods like in Browser Wars, and OS Wars. It would be more interesting, I think.

[@superavel]

Nintendo only sold ~117 million units before Sony came in with the PlayStation. It literally shows you in the graph. 903 million - 117 million (for before Sony joined) makes it 786 million to 618 million. I have an Excel sheet on this: Nintendo's market share every generation is over 45% except sixth generation @ 38.5% (including previous generations its ~48%) to Sony's 32% overall. They're averaging 8.1% to Sony's 7.3% in grand total each generation since Sony started making consoles.

[@LeChuck1717]

for me its Sega Mega Drive (Genesis), Sega Master System 2, Nintendo Gamecube. But PC always way better...

[@davidjwidmann]

Where can I get the song?!

[@CaptainGizmo]

It's Epic Motivation by Roman Cano

[@static-san]

The Nintendo numbers could be considered misleading because it included all the Game and Watch titles... but then they have been making gaming hardware longer than any of the current players. So perhaps their inclusion is fair. I still have a soft-spot for the PS3. I basically bought it for Journey then got hooked on PS Home, a few NFS titles and then GTA V. and SR 3/4 I was fully intending on upgrading to the PS5 but Sony had production issues when it launched, and I'd essentially switched to a PC at that point. I was also really disappointed Sony basically abandoned backwards compatibility. I think a lot of people didn't know the PS3 had near full emulated support for PS1 games, including discs. The PS4 was fast enough to emulate a PS2 and the PS5 was fast enough to emulate a PS3 and can natively play almost all PS4 games. With the exception of the older disc support, it should not have been difficult for the PS5 to support almost any PlayStation game ever. But Sony decided they didn't want to t do that. :-( It would've been such a killer feature as older consoles start dying of old age.

[@ArtemKritov]

Nintendo Switch Lite, AMOLED?

[@zauberkolleg7370]

Meta Quest 3

[@user-cs2mx4lt3q]

xbox was my childhood specifically the xbox 360

[@GeorgeCharoupas]

So nintendo sold more console units than almost all the other brands combined.

[@mattwolf7698]

They had a much bigger head start.

[@invrunner]

Not only a head start. Nintendo has had almost no competition in the handheld market, where prices are lower and there's a potential for multiple units sold per household. Even the Switch, being promoted as a hybrid system, is pretty much a handheld with a tv out.

[@DS9TREK]

I think it's including Game and Watch sales too

[@superavel]

@@mattwolf7698 No. Nintendo only sold ~117 million units before Sony came in with the PlayStation. It literally shows you in the graph. 903 million - 117 million (for before Sony joined) makes it 786 million to 618 million.

[@dragonbleu1205]

Yeah I love this video ! Please do the same with home computer 8 bits Sinclar ZX80 ? to 16/32 bits at the end, the best of all Amiga 4000. Before all this F*** PC and Mac. No Mac , No PC all the stats will burn the others because they are used for business ! So no PC no Mac. Fun Home computers... Like Amstrad CPC Commodre C64 etc... Realy thanks for this video !

[@georgefloroiu452]

Sony PlayStation ❤

[@justair123]

0:56 and that's when Nintendo peaked

[@frjoethesecond]

My favourite brand was Sony up until around 2016 when they started to go hard on censoring stuff. They thought me that brand loyalty and fanboyism will make you easy to exploit.

[@Srnicolas23]

go go go SONY !!!!!!!!!!!

[@jonathancrackelheterosexua832]

Come on change sony

[@RonsonDenmark]

Xbox will soon be dead.

[@cllee4262]

PC will be the final form of game console.

[@aad7451]

It already is dead kinda 😂

[@MichaelJamesonofgoogle]

Just because they aren't doing well as Sony or Nintendo in terms of hardware sales doesn't mean they're anywhere near dead. Sarah Bond stated publicly that they've already begun work on their next generation hardware, likely to launch around 2028. Even if the PS5 sells two or even three times as many units as Series X/S globally, there's still a market for Xbox hardware, especially in an era where Microsoft are now the largest publisher on ALL platforms.

[@user-xe5wz3bc2x]

Где sreamdeck?

[@chrisparlette3097]

Ok between brown box and Magnavox had started the game console in history that will never changed but Nintendo is still the king of game consoles. 🤓 👑 🎮

[@chrisparlette3097]

Ok, just in case you don't know about the brown box, it came out 1966 it was made by Ralph H. Baer the founder of game console what started all in history. 🤓 But haven't came out of the store market in those days. 😕

[@andreycamper5863]

where are steam decks?

[@mitkasan8915]

Where is Steam deck?

[@simonmcpartlin6547]

Got give it to Nintendo for variety and innovation. They must have had as many different consoles as all of the others added together. Sony on the other hand have stuck to a winning formula in the mainstream console stakes.

[@superavel]

Nintendo will win. They're still in the lead even just counting them two. Nintendo only sold ~117 million units before Sony came in with the PlayStation. 903 million - 117 million (for before Sony joined) makes it 786 million to 618 million.

[@Voha]

Dendy😂😂😂😂

[@Bartosz_Gorecki]

PlayStation 2 rulez!

[@sargenthp]

Nintendo was cool until they bowed down to the woke. Sony had been my choice, besides PC gaming.

[@iznax9]

Great choice going to Sony the ultimate woke company 🤡

[@sargenthp]

@@iznax9 Yeah. Now days I use a Steam Deck.

[@iznax9]

@@sargenthp I sold mine, the battery life is atrocious and half of my steam library doesn't run well or at all So I'll stay with the convenience and reliability of consoles 👌❤️💯🕹️

[@kevinmachine9310]

Sony will pass Nintendo when the PS 6 comes out.

[@iznax9]

Hahahaha

[@clapiotis]

Hahahaha

[@ThePMFaster]

Hahahaha

[@superavel]

No. Nintendo only sold ~117 million units before Sony came in with the PlayStation. It literally shows you in the graph. 903 million - 117 million (for before Sony joined) makes it 786 million to 618 million.

[@martindorra]

What is this second song? Nice Video. Always entertaining and informative 👍

[@CaptainGizmo]

I called it Game On Power On captgizmo.com/youtube/misc/GameOnPowerOn-CaptainGizmo.mp3