Key Takeaways
- The console that sells the most will be considered the true winner of the console wars.
- Some retro gaming consoles, such as the PS2 and Game Boy, have maintained their top selling positions due to their long-standing presence in the market.
- The Nintendo Switch is a best-seller with 143.4 million units sold, making it a likely contender for the top spot.
In the midst of the fierce battles of each generation The Console Wars The system that will generate the most sales will be the one that fans can support as the true winner. Better Games While some functions and features may make one console better than another, at the end of the day, it is the console that sells the most that people remember. After all, isn’t that what these companies want most? They may pretend that it’s all for the love of games, but in reality, what they want is for the console to be a better console than the one that sells the most. The numbers are getting bigger .
As gaming becomes more popular, you might think that the newest consoles will always outsell the older ones. While that is certainly true at times, there are some retro consoles that have been on the market longer or were all the rage at the time, and they will never be challenged for their top spot on the list. So let’s get into the hard numbers and see which consoles are the best-selling of all time right now. Chances are, you own one or more of these consoles.
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1 PlayStation 2
Game consoles and DVD players
Sony
The PS2 was the most wanted gaming console in the early 2000s. Whereas Sony had to make the PS1 more appealing by being able to play CDs, they hit their stride by adding DVD capabilities to the PS2. This may sound obvious now, since a disc drive can basically play anything that’s disc-shaped, but that wasn’t the case when the PS2 came out. DVD players themselves were still new, and they couldn’t even be played on the Xbox or GameCube. But the trump card was that the PS2 was somehow cheaper than most dedicated DVD players. Suddenly kids all over the world had the perfect selling point to get their parents to buy them a gaming console.
The last officially reported sales figures for the PS2 were at 155 million units in 2012, although former CEO Jim Ryan claimed in a 2024 podcast that 160 million had been sold at that time.
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2 Nintendo DS
Just print money
Nintendo
Nintendo abandoned the tried-and-true handheld design they pioneered and tried something bold with the DS. I mean, two screens on a handheld? How on earth is that supposed to work? Turns out, it worked too well. The little console has outsold any Nintendo hardware before or since. Nintendo’s secret, and what they do best, is market their products to all ages. Games like Brain Training and Animal Crossing, and intuitive touchscreen controls, broadened their appeal to gamers of all ages.
As of 2021, the Nintendo DS had sold 154.02 million units, just missing out on the top spot.
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3 Nintendo Switch
It might take the top spot
The only system currently in the top 10 is the Nintendo Switch. After the massive flop of the WiiU (which only sold 13.5 million units), Nintendo needed to pull off a miracle. The Switch is more than a miracle thanks to an ingenious idea to combine a home console with a handheld. It’s certainly much less powerful than the PS4, but its software lineup and price are hard to argue with. Seven years after its release, the Switch is still selling at a pace that rivals the PS5. The only question now is how many units it will sell before the Switch 2 is released and the current Switch sales are gone.
So far this year, Nintendo Switch sales have reached 143.4 million units and are still growing.
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4 Game Boy + Game Boy Color
A small handheld
Nintendo
You might think the current console generation is long, but the Game Boy and Game Boy Color were around for over a decade before the GBA came out. Nintendo lumps these sales numbers together, but I think it’s fair because the Color wasn’t as powerful and couldn’t run games that the OG couldn’t, it just added color. The Game Boy was the first handheld that showed you could actually get a console-level experience on the go. Other companies tried to compete in this space, but nothing could match the Game Boy phenomenon until Steam Deck and other handheld PCs came along.
The latest official figures show Game Boy sales stood at 118.6 million units.
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5 PlayStation 4
No competition
For PlayStation, the launch of the PS4 couldn’t have come at a better time. The Xbox One had been panned for its DRM, bundled Kinnect, and general anti-consumer marketing. All the PS4 really had to do was kill the Xbox, but it took it a step further by being cheaper and better performing for many games. From there, a generation of standout exclusives dug the Xbox into a hole it has yet to recover from, giving the PS5 enough momentum to already climb to #14 on the list of best-selling consoles, with plenty of time to grow.
The PS4 is still on sale, but the latest sales data shows that it has sold 117.2 million units.
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