Since it first released the Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan in 1983, Nintendo has been one of the leading video game hardware manufacturers. Thanks to the success of the Nintendo Switch, the company just topped all-time hardware sales of 750 million units.
The official tally of Nintendo hardware sales since the NES – both console and handheld platforms – is 752.21 million units. This comfortably makes Nintendo the all-time video game hardware leader, over 200 million units ahead of Sony. The tally does not include sales of the limited edition retro micro consoles, the NES Classic and SNES Classic.
Two of the three most successful video game hardware platforms have been Nintendo systems. Nintendo DS was easily the most successful platform for the company, selling 154 million units, just shy of PS2’s total of 155 million units. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined for 118.69 million each.
Meanwhile, the least successful was easily the Wii U. The Wii U floundered right out of the gate and barely topped 10 million units sold worldwide. Nintendo 3DS saw a sharp decline from the success of Nintendo DS, but it still managed respectable sales of over 75 million units, putting it ahead of NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube, respectively.
The company’s most recent hardware release has been a massive success so far as well. According to a quarterly earnings report, Nintendo Switch Lite sold 2 million units in its first 10 days.
Here’s a breakdown of Nintendo’s top-selling platforms since NES:
- Nintendo DS – 154.02 million
- Game Boy – 118.69 million
- Wii – 101.63 million
- Game Boy Advance – 81.51 million
- Nintendo 3DS – 75.45 million
- NES – 61.91 million
- SNES – 49.10 million
- Nintendo Switch – 41.67 million
- Nintendo 64 – 32.93 million
- GameCube – 21.74 million
- Wii U – 13.56 million
