Best-Selling Game Consoles of All Time

Data

Note: The Best-Selling Consoles of All Time, Ranked

How console sales are counted

Console sales on this page are lifetime totals measured in millions of units, counting every unit ever sold over the machine's whole life. The list mixes home consoles, handhelds, and hybrid devices, and it includes combined platforms such as the Game Boy and Game Boy Color counted together, plus long-lived lines like the slim versions of the PS2.

• Handhelds sell in huge volumes because they are cheap and aimed at broad audiences.
• Long-lived consoles keep selling for a decade or more, which pushes their totals higher.
• Official figures come from manufacturers, so different sources can differ slightly on the final numbers.

The podium: PS2, Switch, and DS

Three consoles sit above 150 million units. The PlayStation 2 leads with 160.0 million, helped by its double life as a cheap DVD player in the early 2000s. The Nintendo Switch follows at 155.92 million, and the Nintendo DS is third at 154.02 million.

• The Switch is the only one of the three still charting with current sales, having launched in 2017.
• The DS reached a massive casual audience with games like Nintendogs and Brain Age.
• The PS2 stayed in production for over a decade, unusually long for any console.

Nintendo's grip on the chart

Nintendo claims 10 of the 20 spots, spanning every era from the Atari age to today. Beyond the Switch and DS, the list includes the Game Boy/Game Boy Color (118.69M), Wii (101.63M), Game Boy Advance (81.51M), 3DS (75.94M), NES (61.91M), SNES (49.1M), and Nintendo 64 (32.93M).

• Nintendo's mix of handhelds and family-friendly home consoles gives it two sales channels.
• The Wii sold 101.63 million by turning motion controls into a mainstream phenomenon in 2006.
• The original Game Boy started in 1989 and still outsells most modern consoles decades later.

Sony and Microsoft's story

Sony places six consoles in the top 20: PS2 (160M), PS4 (117.2M), PS1 (102.49M), PS5 (93.7M), PS3 (87.4M), and PSP (80.0M). Microsoft has three: Xbox 360 at 84.0 million, its closest approach to the leaders, Xbox One at 58.0 million, and Xbox Series X/S at 28.3 million.

• The PS5 already ranks eighth despite launching in 2020, with 93.7 million sold.
• The original PlayStation from 1994 helped Sony break into gaming and reached 102.49 million.
• The PSP shows Sony can do handhelds too, selling 80 million units.

Why some consoles beat their rivals

Success usually comes from price, timing, software, and extra features. The PS2 won partly because it doubled as an affordable DVD player. The Wii won by reaching non-gamers. The Xbox 360 sold well in the west but never matched PlayStation or Nintendo worldwide, while pioneering machines like Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis (30.75M) and Atari's 2600 (30.0M) prove early entrants can still chart from much smaller eras.

• A strong exclusive game library is the classic recipe for long-term sales.
• Pricing the machine below rivals early can snowball into a platform lead.
• Being first builds a base, but later entrants with better tech often surpass it.

Fun Facts

• The PlayStation 2's 160 million units have remained unbeaten since 2000.
• The Switch (2017) is the only console in the top five released after 2013, highlighting how rare mega-hits are.
• Combined, Nintendo's ten entries outsell every other manufacturer's entries put together.
• The Xbox 360, at 84 million, is the best-selling console Microsoft ever made.
• The Atari 2600 from 1977 shows the market is old enough that even the earliest home console charts.
• The Game Boy and Game Boy Color are counted as one platform, which is why their combined total is so high.
• Handhelds and hybrids make up roughly a third of the full top-20 list.
• Sega's only entry is the Mega Drive/Genesis from 1988, a reminder of the 16-bit era's peak.