• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Shop

AUSRETROGAMER

The Pop-Culture E-Zine

  • Announcements
  • History
  • Retro Exploring
  • Retro Gaming Culture
  • Reviews
  • Modern Gaming
  • Podcasts
  • Pinball
You are here: Home / History / Best-Selling Video Game Consoles: 1972 to 2002

Best-Selling Video Game Consoles: 1972 to 2002

02/01/2013 By ausretrogamer

👉 Know someone who’d love this? Share it 👇

Reddit Facebook X LinkedIn

Atari2600       NES       SMD

Do you remember those school-yard arguments you used to have with your friends about which video game console was better: Atari vs Intellivision or Sega vs Nintendo ?
Finally, you can check out the best-selling video game consoles from 1972 to 2002 figures below and put an end to those endless arguments – or will this just reopen old wounds ? 

Best-Selling-Consoles_1972_to_2002

It is quite clear that Atari reined supreme in the early days with 30 million consoles being sold world-wide. After resurrecting the video games industry in the mid 80’s, Nintendo enjoyed massive sales of their NES (61.9 million) and SNES (49.1 million) consoles, while Sega played the bridesmaid with their Master System (13.1 million unit) and their better selling 16-bit machine, the Mega Drive / Genesis (41.9 million).

The early 90’s were still dominated by Nintendo, however, that all changed when Sony decided to enter the video games industry in 1994 by releasing their Playstation console. Sony’s dominance was clear with the first Playstation (102.9 million) selling exceedingly well, but its successor, the Playstation 2 (155.1 million) still remains the best-selling video games console of all time**

** as at 1 January 2013

 

👉 Enjoyed that? Share it 👇

Reddit Facebook X LinkedIn

Related posts:

Ausretrogamer Is 10 Years Old! The Internet Archive Console Living Room Retro Gaming TV Commercials May The Festive Season Be With You

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Atari, Commodore, consoles, nec, nintendo, Retro Gaming, sega, SNK

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Best-Selling Portable Video Game Systems Of All Time | Australian Retro Gamer says:
    08/01/2013 at 8:38 am

    […] last week’s Best-Selling Video Game Consoles: 1972 to 2002 post, it was clear that Sony had taken the stranglehold in the consoles market in the mid […]

  2. The Playstation Journey | AUSRETROGAMER says:
    17/12/2013 at 9:54 am

    […] their place in the gaming pantheon with the world’s best selling console of all time, the Playstation 2. The gaming world has changed quite a bit over the last decade with the merge of gaming with online […]

Primary Sidebar

Search

Shout Us A Coffee!

Recent Posts

  • Heart of Neon Review – The Definitive Jeff Minter Documentary
  • Stern Pinball Celebrates 40 Years: From Data East to Sega Pinball to Stern
  • Go Fast or Go Home! Rumours Swirl Around Sonic The Hedgehog Pinball by JJP
  • 8BitDo 64 Bluetooth Controller Review
  • Roll Out! Stern’s Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Pinball Machine Is an ’80s Fan’s Dream Come True

Footer

© 2012 – 2026 – ausretrogamer (The Australian Retro Gamer E-Zine). All rights reserved. Where appropriate, all trademarks and copyrighted materials remain property of their respective owners.

Terms & Conditions | Disclaimer

Advertise | About | Contact | Links

Please see our Privacy Policy for details on how we treat your personal information.

Support This Site

If you like what we do, you can shout us a coffee on Ko-fi :-)

Copyright © 2026 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in