Top 10 Best Gaming Consoles of All Time

The Nintendo DS sold 154 million units, pioneering dual-screen handheld gaming with its touchscreen and microphone inputs. Its library — including New Super Mario Bros., Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, and Brain Age — made it a phenomenon beyond core gamers, reaching seniors and children who had never played video games before.

Nintendo's hybrid home-portable console surpassed 140 million units sold by 2025, making it the best-selling Nintendo platform ever. The Switch's flexibility to play as a TV console or handheld, combined with blockbusters like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (40M+ copies), and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (67M+ copies), made it unstoppable.

Nintendo's original Game Boy (1989) and its successors sold 118 million units combined, surviving a battery-draining screen and launching in a world of superior color handhelds purely on the strength of Tetris bundled in the box. The Game Boy defined portable gaming for an entire generation and made Nintendo's handheld dominance an institution.

Sony's PS4 sold 117 million units between 2013 and 2023, hosting an unrivaled generation of exclusive masterpieces: The Last of Us Part II, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, and Bloodborne. Its launch-day momentum after Microsoft's disastrous Xbox One DRM controversy gave Sony a market-share lead it has never relinquished.

Nintendo's motion-controlled Wii sold 101 million units by attracting audiences who had never touched a video game — grandparents bowled, parents played tennis, and Wii Fit became a health phenomenon. Wii Sports remains one of the best-selling games of all time at 82 million copies, most bundled with hardware.

The Nintendo Entertainment System rescued the video game industry after the catastrophic 1983 crash, selling 62 million units and establishing franchises still dominant today: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, and Castlevania. No single piece of hardware has had a more transformative effect on popular culture than the NES.

Sony's original PlayStation sold 102 million units and legitimized gaming as a mainstream medium for adults. It introduced 3D gaming to the masses via Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Crash Bandicoot, and its CD-ROM format ended Nintendo's cartridge monopoly, permanently reshaping the hardware business model.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 84 million units and transformed online console gaming through Xbox Live, establishing the gold standard for friends lists, achievements, and matchmaking. Halo 3, Gears of War, and Mass Effect defined a generation, while the RROD (Red Ring of Death) hardware failure — affecting 30-54% of units — became gaming's most infamous scandal.

The Super Nintendo sold 49 million units between 1990 and 2003 and hosted arguably the greatest software library of any console: Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter II, and Final Fantasy VI. Its Mode 7 graphics chip enabled 3D-like rotation effects years before true 3D hardware existed.

The Nintendo DS sold 154 million units, pioneering dual-screen handheld gaming with its touchscreen and microphone inputs. Its library — including New Super Mario Bros., Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, and Brain Age — made it a phenomenon beyond core gamers, reaching seniors and children who had never played video games before.

Nintendo's hybrid home-portable console surpassed 140 million units sold by 2025, making it the best-selling Nintendo platform ever. The Switch's flexibility to play as a TV console or handheld, combined with blockbusters like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (40M+ copies), and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (67M+ copies), made it unstoppable.

Nintendo's original Game Boy (1989) and its successors sold 118 million units combined, surviving a battery-draining screen and launching in a world of superior color handhelds purely on the strength of Tetris bundled in the box. The Game Boy defined portable gaming for an entire generation and made Nintendo's handheld dominance an institution.

Sony's PS4 sold 117 million units between 2013 and 2023, hosting an unrivaled generation of exclusive masterpieces: The Last of Us Part II, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, and Bloodborne. Its launch-day momentum after Microsoft's disastrous Xbox One DRM controversy gave Sony a market-share lead it has never relinquished.

Nintendo's motion-controlled Wii sold 101 million units by attracting audiences who had never touched a video game — grandparents bowled, parents played tennis, and Wii Fit became a health phenomenon. Wii Sports remains one of the best-selling games of all time at 82 million copies, most bundled with hardware.

The Nintendo Entertainment System rescued the video game industry after the catastrophic 1983 crash, selling 62 million units and establishing franchises still dominant today: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, and Castlevania. No single piece of hardware has had a more transformative effect on popular culture than the NES.

Sony's original PlayStation sold 102 million units and legitimized gaming as a mainstream medium for adults. It introduced 3D gaming to the masses via Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and Crash Bandicoot, and its CD-ROM format ended Nintendo's cartridge monopoly, permanently reshaping the hardware business model.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 84 million units and transformed online console gaming through Xbox Live, establishing the gold standard for friends lists, achievements, and matchmaking. Halo 3, Gears of War, and Mass Effect defined a generation, while the RROD (Red Ring of Death) hardware failure — affecting 30-54% of units — became gaming's most infamous scandal.

The Super Nintendo sold 49 million units between 1990 and 2003 and hosted arguably the greatest software library of any console: Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter II, and Final Fantasy VI. Its Mode 7 graphics chip enabled 3D-like rotation effects years before true 3D hardware existed.