Major Home Consoles by Units Solds Every Months-Years (per Generation and Regions) (1972-2023)

Video games have existed since the end of the Second World War, but the technology of the time did not allow the democratization of this hobby. During the primitive era, the video game thus remained pure fantasy and science fiction. The end of the 1D era in 1972 marks the beginning of the genesis of video games, and the firsts companies, the firsts consoles and the firsts 2D games are born. These games are very simplistic and have little reputation in a very young market. the Atari 2600 will be the only console of the first generations to really talk about leisure, sold 30 million copies, the console will be cloned thousands of times, flooding the market with bad consoles and bad games causing the crash of the video game in 1983. In 1983, the video game is doomed to disappear, but nintendo releases the Famicom / NES and alone saves the video game market and will be the best-selling console of the century. during the decade that followed Nintendo was alone in the video game market and exported its console and its games all over the world. No companies manage to compete with Nintendo, until 1987. Coming out of almost nowhere, Sega manages to panic Nintendo in America and Europe, a video game war will then begin between the 2 manufacturers for the domination of 4th consoles. Generations, during 10 the war will rage and will take everything with it, however the arrival of Sony in 1994 will put a definitive end to Nintendo's hegemony on the world of video games. The technologies between 1983 and 2001 made an extraordinary leap forward, especially with the passage to 3D, and the hurricane Sony will kill Sega in 2001 only 3 years after the beginning of the 6th Generation consoles, the PlayStation 2 will be the best-selling console on the planet and even Microsoft, yet 5 times richer than Sony, a newcomer to the video game market, will not be able to do anything. The 7th Generation brings with it a new wind with the arrival of HD and a new war of power will rage between Sony and Microsoft at the beginning of 2005, nintendo meanwhile innovates with exotic and unpredictable consoles such as the Wii which will be the best console of its generation. Despite everything, video game technologies are running out of steam, video games have become less impressive since the beginning of the 8th Generation, consoles are soon reaching the limits of what they can offer, technical innovation is not advancing. The 9th Generation, may be the last of all... List of Major Events : Primitive Generation (1957 - 1972) [Not Shown] : -- First Video Game (1957) -- 1D Video Games Era (1960 - 1970) -- Birth of Video Game Market (1972) First Generation (1972 - 1984) [00:00 - 02:23] : -- Post 1D Era (1972) -- Early 2D Video Games (1972 - 1976) -- Early Video Games Technologies (1976) Second Generation (1975 - 1993) [00:39 - 04:07] : -- Atari 2600's Domination (1976 - 1983) -- Acrade Games Booming (1978) -- Crash of Video Games Market (1983) Third Generation (1983 - 2004) [01:49 - 06:14] : -- Video Games Renaissance (1984 - 1986) -- Famicom/NES launched by Nintendo (1983) -- Tetris Mania (1984) Fourth Generation (1987 - 2004) [02:46 - 06:14] : -- CD's Early Era (1987) -- Nintendo vs Sega (1987 - 1994) -- Post 2D Video Games Era (1995) Fifth Generation (1992 - 2007) [03:56 - 06:49] : -- Early 3D Video Games Era (1996 - 1998) -- Sony Playstation's Domination (1994 - 2004) -- Pokémania (1996 - 2000) Sixth Generation (1997 - 2014) [04:54 - 08:10] : -- Death of Sega (2001) -- Early Internet Connexion (2001) -- Microsoft join the War (2002) Seventh Generation (2005- 2018) [06:15 - 08:57] : -- High Definition (HD) Era (2005) -- Early Virtual Reality Games (2006) -- Early Cloud Gaming (2012) Eighth Generation (2011 - 20XX) [07:36 - 10:00] : -- 4K Era (2012) -- Mobile Games Booming (2015) -- Hybrid Consoles (2017) Ninth Generation (2019 - 20XX) [09:08 - 10:00] : -- 8K Era (2020) -- Openworld Revolution (2020) -- Next Generation Technologies (2023) Best Selling Console per Generation : 1G : Color TV-Game (Nintendo) = 3 M units Solds 2G : Atari 2600 (Atari) = 30 M units Solds 3G : Famicom / NES (Nintendo) = 61,91 M units Solds 4G : Super Famicom / SNES (Nintendo) = 49,1 M units Solds 5G : PlayStation (Sony) = 102,49 M units Solds 6G : PlayStation 2 (Sony) = 155 M units Solds 7G : Wii (Nintendo) = 101,63 M units Solds 8G : Nintendo Switch (Nintendo) = 114,33 M units Solds [Active] 9G : PlayStation 5 (Sony) = 22 M units Solds [Active] Note : This video does not include Portable Consoles or Arcade Terminals. It Only Includes Home Consoles and Hybrid Consoles. The units Solds given are those of Major Consoles which have had a certain importance in the history of video games. Finally it does not show the possible sales before the 1st generation. Musics Used : Nine Parchments : Shivering Steps (Antti Martikainen) At the Gates of Babylon (Antti Martikainen) Onward ! (Antti Martikainen)