Console Conundrum

Brody Kenawell

Eclectic electronics. The top consoles of today are the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox series X/S and the Playstation 5. These consoles have been out for a good bit now though and a new generation of consoles are sure to come rolling in anytime now. Eighth graderTristan Quintana said, “I love Nintenod because they created Mario, and Mario is cool.”

In the dead of night, the lights flare and the sounds blare. It’s the final two, and the win calls to him. “Come on, come on, yes!” The final blow is dealt, and the game ends.

Video games are an enthralling pleasure to partake in, and not many can withstand their iron grasp. They are played throughout the world, but everyone has their own preferences on them. Mario, Halo and God of War, are a few games that are exclusive to certain companies’ consoles, the big three.

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are three of the biggest gaming companies when it comes to consoles, and people usually prefer one over the other. People prefer one because it has the best exclusives, controller and console design or even the overall nostalgia they feel toward them.

My personal preferences are toward Nintendo, and there are many reasons why, but I will prove that Nintendo is better out of the three companies by console sales. The three companies have been against each other since the late 1980s, and it is time to settle the battle by looking into the sales of the consoles that have been produced by them.

According to the article “Nintendo Video Game Consoles,”  by Wikipedia, the Color TV-Game series was released in Japan starting in 1977. These were Nintendo’s first consoles and came in five models. The CTV Game 6, CTV Game 15, CTV Game Racing 112, CTV Game Block Kuzushi and Computer TV game. In total, three million units were sold of this series.

The article went on to say that Nintendo’s next systems were the Game & Watch series, which game out in 1980. These handheld consoles featured one game each, and by the end of the series the consoles sold 43.4 million units. The Family Computer (Famicom) released in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in the U.S., which came out in 1983 and 1985. These consoles were Nintendo’s first cartridge based consoles, and they sold 4.4 million units and 61.91 million units.

It also mentioned that the Gameboy was next, and it was Nintendo’s second handheld console, yet this one had a variety of games available unlike the Game & Watch series. The Gameboy ended up selling 100 million units at the end of its lifetime. Only two years later came the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, an improved and upgraded NES. This console sold 49.1 million units, and I even own one of these myself.

Next the article stated that in 1995 Nintendo came out with a console called the Virtual Boy, a mounted, supposed virtual gaming headset where the only colors the games came in were black and red. Only 22 games were released however, and the console ended up flopping with only 770 thousand units being sold. On the other hand according to the article “Sony Interactive Entertainment”, by Wikipedia, Sony came out with their first console, the Playstation. This console showed mass success in the markets, even though it was their first console, and sold 102 million units in its lifetime.

A year later, Nintendo came out with the Nintendo 64 (N64), which although it only sold 32.93 million units, (a low number compared to the Gameboy’s) the N64 was a widely loved console. After that the Gameboy Pocket, a slimmed down version of the Gameboy, released the same year selling 10 million units, the Gameboy Light, a version slightly bigger that the Gameboy with an electroluminescent backlight, released in 1998 and the Gameboy Color, a version that added color to the games, also released in 1998 according to the Nintendo article.

The Sony article articulated that in the year 2000, Sony came out with two more consoles, the Playstation 2 and the PS One. The Playstaion 2 was Sony’s second home console and sold a whopping 155 million units a long with the Playstation 2 Slim, which came out in 2004 and was a slimmed down version of the PS2, and the PS One was a smaller, redesigned version of the Playstation and sold 28.15 million units.

In 2001 according to the article “Microsoft,” by Wikipedia, Microsoft released their first game console, the Xbox, which sold 24 million units. The Nintendo article also stated on how Nintendo released the Gamecube, a cube shaped console, that sold 21.74 million units, the Gameboy Advance (GBA), a significantly more powerful version of the Gameboy, the same year, the Gameboy Advance SP, a redesigned model of the GBA that could snap open and shut, in 2003 and the Gameboy Micro,  a mini version of the GBA, in 2006. These three Gameboy consoles ended up selling a combined number of 81.51 million units. The Pokémon Mini, a handheld console that could hold 10 Pokémon games, also came out in 2002 selling 500 thousand units.

All three articles respectively reported that in 2004 Nintendo released the DS, a handheld console that could snap open and shut, and it sold 61.12 million units. Sony released the Playstation Portable, their first console that was handheld, in 2005 and it sold 81 million units. Microsoft came out with the Xbox 360, their second console, in 2005, the Xbox 360 S, a slimmed version of the Xbox 360, in 2010 and the Xbox 360 E, a console redesign with a more boxy shape, in 2013. Combined these three consoles sold 81 million units.

The Nintendo article that spoke about how in 2006 Nintendo released the Wii, a console that used motion controlled controllers, that sold 101.63 million units, and the DS Lite, a sleeker redesign of the DS, that sold 93.86 million units. The Sony article then said that Sony released the Playstation 3, a more powerful Playstation, the PS3 Slim, a slimmer version of the PS3 and the PS3 Super Slim, an EVEN slimmer version of the PS3. In total these three consoles amounted to 87.4 million units sold.

The Nintendo article continued with how Nintendo then released the DSi, another redesign of the DS, in 2009 which sold 41.33 million units, and the DSi XL, a larger version of the DSi, in 2010 which sold 13.95 million units. Nintendo then released the 3DS, a more powerful DS with the option to play with 3D features, in 2011 which sold 25.42 million units, the 3DS XL, a larger 3DS, in 2012 which sold 15.21 million units and the 2DS, a less expensive 3DS that removed the 3D capabilities, in 2013 which sold 2.11 million units. Next released was the New 3DS, a redesigned 3DS, in 2015 which sold 2.49 million units, the New 3DS XL, a larger New 3DS, in 2015 which sold 11.08 million units and the New 2DS XL, a larger, more powerful 2DS, in 2017 which sold 4.8 million units.

In 2012 Nintendo released the Wii U, which was a more powerful Wii, and had a tablet that could act as a controller or its own separated console. The Wii U sold 13.56 million units according to the Nintendo article. Sony released the Playstation Vita which was the successor to the Playstation Portable. This console sold 12.5 million units according to the Sony article.

The Sony article also commented that Sony released the Playstation 4, their second most successful console, in 2013, the Playstation 4 Slim, a slimmer version of the Playstation, in 2016 and the Playstation 4 Pro, an improved Playstation 4 with more hardware, in 2016. In total the sales of the three were 117.2 million units. Microsoft released the Xbox One, a console that could also be bought with a motion sensor called Kinect, in 2013, the Xbox One S, a redesign of the Xbox One with better visuals, in 2016 and the Xbox One X, a redesign of the Xbox One with improved hardware. Altogether these three consoles accumulated to 51 million units sold expressed by the Microsoft article.

In 2013 Nintendo released the Wii Mini, a smaller redesigned Wii with no WiFi support, which sold 3.65 million units. The NES Classic Edition, a smaller NES with games already downloaded onto them, was released in 2016, and it sold 2.3 million units. The SNES Classic Edition, a smaller SNES with games already downloaded onto it, was released in 2017, and sold 5.28 million units. The Nintendo Classic Mini: Family Computer Weekly Shōnen Jump 50th Anniversary Version, a small system that included Shōnen Jump games preloaded onto it, in 2018, and it sold 110 thousand units remarked the Nintendo article.

Nintendo released the Switch, a hybrid console with detachable joy-cons, in 2017, and it sold 150.83 million units. They then released the Switch Lite, a cheaper version that cannot be docked and has less power, in 2019 which sold 25.27 million units and the Switch OLED, a Switch with a bigger screen and sharper visuals, in 2021 which sold 29.41 million units. They also released two special editions of the Game & Watch, the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. released in 2020 and sold 1.92 million units, and the Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda released in 2021 and sold 1.39 million units pronounced the Nintendo Article.

Voiced by the Microsoft article, in 2020 Microsoft released the Xbox Series X, a higher processing console, and the Xbox Series S, a lower processing console than the Series X, which together sold 30 million units. In 2020 Sony released the Playstation 5, a 4k resolution console, and the PS5 Digital Edition, an edition where games can only be bought digitally, which together sold 75 million units. Sony then released the Playstation Portal, a console used to stream games and media through the PS5 wirelessly, in 2023 which sold two million units exclaimed the Sony article.

The Sony article then went on and said that Sony came out with two VR headsets, the Playstation VR which came out in 2016 and sold five million units, and the Playstation VR2 which came out in 2023 and sold 600 thousand units.

After all this talk about the consoles, it is time to see the overall standings. Microsoft in third place with the total unit sales of 181 million units. Sony in second place with total unit sales reaching 664.27 million units. In first place Nintendo with a whopping 1.062 billion units.

Nintendo might have overpowered the other companies due to their sheer amount of consoles, but those consoles still had good sales, and it proves that Nintendo is well liked and deserves this number one placing.