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Console sales: 59 machines, 1,975 million units
Hardware sales next to Game of the Year awards. The best-selling console ever is the PlayStation 2 at 160 million units — but selling the most hardware and winning the most awards are two different competitions, and the table below shows they do not line up.
- 160MPlayStation 2
- 9Generations covered
- 59Machines tracked
- 1,975MUnits total
Where these numbers come from.
Manufacturer-reported shipments via Wikipedia's best-selling console list, each figure cited there individually. Microsoft stopped publishing Xbox unit sales in 2015, so Xbox One and Series X/S are informed estimates rather than reported figures — treat those two rows with more caution than the rest.
Hardware sales vs Game of the Year awards
Awards counted for games released on each platform family, against units sold. A multiplatform game counts for every platform it shipped on, so the award column measures presence, not exclusivity — which is exactly why the ratio is interesting.
| Platform family | GOTY awards | Units sold | Awards per million units |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC | 9,184 | — | — |
| PlayStation | 5,569 | 658.4M | 8.46 |
| Xbox | 3,370 | 201.0M | 16.77 |
| Nintendo | 2,424 | 903.1M | 2.68 |
PC has no hardware row because it is not a console — its award count is shown for scale, not as a like-for-like comparison.
Every generation sold more than the last — until it did not
Hardware sales climbed through seven generations straight. The eighth is the biggest ever at 369 million units; the ninth is still in progress.
Units sold across the generation (millions)
Who won each console generation
| Gen | Best seller | Its units | Machines | Generation total | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnavox Odyssey² | 2.0M | 1 | 2.0M | 1978 |
| 2 | Atari 2600 | 30.0M | 2 | 33.8M | 1977 |
| 3 | Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System | 61.9M | 4 | 83.9M | 1983 |
| 4 | Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System | 49.1M | 3 | 82.8M | 1988 |
| 5 | PlayStation | 102.5M | 4 | 146.7M | 1993 |
| 6 | PlayStation 2 | 160.0M | 4 | 214.9M | 1998 |
| 7 | Wii | 101.6M | 3 | 273.0M | 2005 |
| 8 | Nintendo Switch | 156.6M | 5 | 369.0M | 2012 |
| 9 | PlayStation 5 | 95.3M | 2 | 130.3M | 2020 |
Generations are a convention, not a fact — the Switch is filed under the eighth or the ninth depending who you ask. Handhelds are left out because they are numbered on their own track. This table follows the common home-console numbering.
Every console by units sold
| Console | Maker | Type | Gen | Released | Units (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation 2 | Sony | Home | 6 | 2000 | 160.00 |
| Nintendo Switch | Nintendo | Hybrid | 8 | 2017 | 156.59 |
| Nintendo DS | Nintendo | Handheld | — | 2004 | 154.02 |
| Game Boy & Game Boy Color | Nintendo | Handheld | — | 1989 | 118.69 |
| PlayStation 4 | Sony | Home | 8 | 2013 | 117.20 |
| PlayStation | Sony | Home | 5 | 1994 | 102.49 |
| Wii | Nintendo | Home | 7 | 2006 | 101.63 |
| PlayStation 5 | Sony | Home | 9 | 2020 | 95.30 |
| PlayStation 3 | Sony | Home | 7 | 2006 | 87.40 |
| Xbox 360 | Microsoft | Home | 7 | 2005 | 84.00 |
| Game Boy Advance | Nintendo | Handheld | — | 2001 | 81.51 |
| PlayStation Portable | Sony | Handheld | — | 2004 | 80.00 |
| Nintendo 3DS | Nintendo | Handheld | — | 2011 | 75.94 |
| Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo | Home | 3 | 1983 | 61.91 |
| Xbox One | Microsoft | Home | 8 | 2013 | 58.00 |
| Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo | Home | 4 | 1990 | 49.10 |
| Xbox Series X/S | Microsoft | Home | 9 | 2020 | 35.00 |
| Nintendo 64 | Nintendo | Home | 5 | 1996 | 32.93 |
| Mega Drive/Genesis | Sega | Home | 4 | 1988 | 30.75 |
| Atari 2600 | Atari | Home | 2 | 1977 | 30.00 |
| Xbox | Microsoft | Home | 6 | 2001 | 24.00 |
| Nintendo Switch 2 | Nintendo | Hybrid | 8 | 2025 | 23.68 |
| Nintendo GameCube | Nintendo | Home | 6 | 2001 | 21.74 |
| Quest 2 | Reality Labs | Vr Headset | — | 2020 | 20.00 |
| PlayStation Vita | Sony | Handheld | — | 2011 | 16.00 |
| Game Gear | Sega | Handheld | — | 1990 | 14.00 |
| Wii U | Nintendo | Home | 8 | 2012 | 13.56 |
| Sega Mark III/Master System | Sega | Home | 3 | 1985 | 13.00 |
| V.Smile & V.Motion | VTech | Home | — | 2004 | 11.00 |
| PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 | NEC/Hudson Soft | Home | — | 1987 | 10.00 |
| Sega Saturn | Sega | Home | 5 | 1994 | 9.26 |
| Dreamcast | Sega | Home | 6 | 1998 | 9.13 |
| Master System (Brazilian variants) | Tectoy | Home | 3 | 1989 | 8.00 |
| Leapster | Leapfrog | Handheld | — | 2003 | 7.00 |
| Dendy (famiclone) | Micro Genius | Home | — | 1992 | 6.00 |
| Super NES Classic Edition | Nintendo | Dedicated | — | 2017 | 5.28 |
| Advanced Pico Beena | Sega | Home | — | 2005 | 4.10 |
| Sega Pico | Sega | Home | — | 1993 | 3.80 |
| Intellivision | Mattel | Home | 2 | 1980 | 3.75 |
| NES Classic Edition | Nintendo | Dedicated | — | 2016 | 3.56 |
| WonderSwan & WonderSwan Color | Bandai | Handheld | — | 1999 | 3.50 |
| Color TV-Game | Nintendo | Dedicated | — | 1977 | 3.00 |
| Mega Drive (Brazilian variants) | Tectoy | Home | 4 | 1990 | 3.00 |
| N-Gage | Nokia | Handheld | — | 2003 | 3.00 |
| ColecoVision | Coleco | Home | — | 1982 | 2.00 |
| Magnavox Odyssey² | Magnavox/Philips | Home | 1 | 1978 | 2.00 |
| Sega SG-1000 | Sega | Home | — | 1983 | 2.00 |
| Atari Lynx | Atari | Handheld | — | 1989 | 2.00 |
| 3DO | The 3DO Company | Home | 5 | 1993 | 2.00 |
| Neo Geo Pocket & Neo Geo Pocket Color | SNK | Handheld | — | 1998 | 2.00 |
| Oculus Go | Oculus | Vr Headset | — | 2018 | 2.00 |
| Meta Quest 3 | Reality Labs | Vr Headset | — | 2023 | 1.70 |
| Mega Drive/Genesis Mini | Sega | Dedicated | — | 2019 | 1.50 |
| Telstar | Coleco | Dedicated | — | 1976 | 1.00 |
| Atari 7800 | Atari | Home | 3 | 1986 | 1.00 |
| Philips CD-i | Philips | Home | — | 1990 | 1.00 |
| Atari 5200 | Atari | Home | — | 1982 | 1.00 |
| Pegasus (famiclone) | Micro Genius | Home | — | 1991 | 1.00 |
| Nex Playground | Nex | Home | — | 2023 | 1.00 |