I read a January 27, 2026 article on Time Extension, a video game website focused primarily on retro games and emulation, titled Apparently, The PSP Counts As A Failure To Some People Now, with “PSP” referring to Sony’s erstwhile PlayStation Portable handheld console, which was officially supported from 2004 to 2014. The headline evinced that the topic would be some sort of very “online” debate about whether PSP was successful (it was, notwithstanding the fact that it did not out-sell its main Nintendo handheld rivals) featuring people with hot takes cool substance. To be sure, this proved to be the case. But little did I expect that one passage in the article correctly defending the PSP would inspire an article of my own.
How Best to Measure PSP’s Success?
I begin with the quote from the Time Extension article which started me on my new project.
The PSP sold 82 million units, lest we forget, while the Vita sold just over 14 million. The video focuses on both the PSP and its ill-fated successor, the PS Vita. While the latter can certainly be considered a disappointment for Sony, what has caused such upset online is the fact that the PSP is seemingly being tarred with the same brush, despite having comfortably beaten the likes of the Mega Drive / Genesis (30.75 million), SNES (49.5 million) and NES (61.91 million) – all of which are considered to be successful systems in terms of commercial performance.
Damien McFerran
I agree with the author that PSP was commercially successful whereas its Sony handheld successor, the PlayStation Vita, was a commercial disappointment (despite having the sublime Persona 4 Golden in its library). But while the conclusion supra is agreeable, the reasoning is less so. The author appeals to the fact that PSP out-sold, in terms of raw numbers, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and the Nintendo Entertainment System, which he states (and I would agree) are popularly considered to have been successful consoles, with the qualified caveat that these consoles (especially the Sega Genesis) had some regional sales variance. Does the fact that Sony sold more PSPs than Sega and Nintendo sold Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo units combined establish that PSP was successful? I vote no for two reasons.
Firstly, we must consider when these consoles were released. PSP was released in 2004, whereas the Nintendo Entertainment System first launched in Japan in 1983 (North America and Europe in 1985/86 respectively), Sega Genesis went out in Japan in 1988 (North America in 1989 and Europe in 1990), and Super Nintendo in Japan in 1990 (North America in 1991 and Europe in 1992). The market for video games, as in the universe of people who purchase game consoles, was bigger in 2004 than in the 1980s and early 1990s, not least I suspect because many kids who grew up playing games in the 1980s and 1990s retained their interest in games as adults who were not dependent on their parents to purchase the games (if I may submit me as an example). Readily available statistics on game console and game sales over time directionally support my assertion.
Secondly, I do not think it is entirely fair to compare the PSP, a purely handheld console, to TV-bound home consoles. If we lump home consoles and handhelds together, Nintendo’s Game Boy line was the best-selling console of the 1990s by a wide margin. That was due in part to how thoroughly Game Boy overshadowed its handheld rivals in the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. But in my humble opinion as someone who was old enough to have received a Game Boy in 1995, I do not think Game Boy should be viewed as having been in direct competition with the home consoles. Nintendo supported multiple versions of the Game Boy (prior to Game Boy Advance) parallel to three flagship home consoles. Game Boy filled a different niche than the TV-bound home consoles of the day. The same applies for PSP and its Nintendo contemporaries.
Taken together, PSP was successful. It sold well and while it was not more successful than Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS (3DS being a somewhat separate matter), it was the first handheld console (and perhaps the only non-Nintendo handheld console now that the concept seems to have died with the qualified exceptions of the Nintendo Switch and the comparatively low-selling-but-nevertheless-cool Steam Deck) to have sold well enough to be considered successful without caveats or qualifications. But the fact it sold more units than home consoles released more than one decade earlier and in two cases not supported for as long is not a convincing argument.
A New Idea For Evaluating Video Game Console Sales Success
My unnecessarily intricate thoughts on how to evaluate the success of the PSP inspired me to undertake a very simple survey which takes into account my two arguments against measuring PSP’s sales relative to third- and fourth-generation home consoles.
With respect to my second argument, I will only focus on home consoles for this survey in light of the fact that home consoles prior to the ninth generation (Switch/PlayStation 5/Xbox X.S) were not in direct competition with handheld consoles. (Note that the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 complicate this assessment, both because they are hybrid consoles and the Switch has an entirely handheld version, but I will address that unique edge-case in my section on the ninth generation).
With respect to the first point, I decided that it would be most instructive to measure home consoles against their peers, that is, consoles they were in direct competition with, instead of cross-generation. This somewhat mitigates against the fact that the universe of people who buy and play video games has grown over time. I will also restrict my inquiry to a single region, here being my home North America.
For my survey, I will draw all of my statistics from a single source: VGChartz’s game console platform sales totals. It provides console sales information, broken down by region (North America, Europe, Japan, and Rest of World). I will rely solely on the North American sales, which are obviously American-dominated but feature some Canadian input. All statistics are what appeared on the chart as of February 10, 2026.
Next, I will compare home consoles against their generational peers. The current console generation with multiple extant consoles (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox X.S) is considered the ninth generation. My console generation choices are consistent with Wikipedia’s History of video game consoles article. My survey will go back to the third generation since that is the first VGChartz’s stats make for an interesting study (Atari thoroughly dominates the second generation with the 2600 and 5200 consoles to the extent there would not be much to write about).
For each generation, I will limit my survey to the three top-selling consoles in North America. I will note how long each console in question was supported in North America (according to information available on Wikipedia), how many units it sold (according to VGChartz), and its percentage slice of the pie of total sales of the top three consoles.
With our introduction complete, let us go generation-by-generation, starting with the ninth generation.
North American Console Sales and Percentage of the Pie by Each Generation
For each generation, you will find a table with each of the top-three selling consoles in North America according to VGChartz, their lifespan in North America courtesy of Wikipedia, total sales (in millions) according to VGChartz, and percent market shares based on total sales combined for the top-three consoles of the generation only.
The North America only qualifier is significant, especially if you are reading this article outside of North America and may have a different local view of when consoles were released and how successful they were. A global view would introduce differences. For example, Sega Master System is still being produced today in Brazil and was competitive with Nintendo’s flagship NES in Europe, but not in North America or Japan. TurboGrafix-16 and Sega Saturn, both of which were distant third-place afterthoughts in North America and Europe in their respective generations, were fairly successful runners-up in Japan. These days, the Xbox line tends to be more successful in North America (and to a lesser extent, Europe) than outside. So do note the limitation on my survey if your experience with games is, from my American perspective, international.
Ninth Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Switch | 2017-03 to Present | 53.76 | 51.31 |
| Sony PlayStation 5 | 2020-11 to Present | 31.67 | 30.22 |
| Microsoft Xbox X.S | 2020-11 to Present | 19.35 | 18.47 |
Nintendo was first out of the gate in the ninth generation with the Switch, with caveats appended that the Switch was not a significant power upgrade from Nintendo’s far less-successful eighth generation offering (or, arguably, its seventh generation offering). Switch, with its hybrid home console/handheld format (I use it exclusively with my TV, but I have friends who use it exclusively as a handheld) and handheld-only Switch Lite offering, comes with some caveats in light of my stating this is a home console survey, but given that the handheld-only market is more or less dead save for Switch Lite, the niche Steam Deck and even more niche-handheld computers, retro gaming devices, and the ubiquitous smart phones (which would be a whole issue unto itself in the context of gaming), we will ignore those caveats here. Ignoring caveats, Switch is now the best-selling home console of all time in North America, and on its merry way to becoming the best-selling worldwide, even with the presence of its tenth generation successor, the creatively-named Switch 2.
PlayStation 5 has been a successful runner-up thus far and can expect to gain some ground on the Switch before it is all said and done (given that Switch’s successor is already on the market). PS5 is already the fourth best generational runner-up in terms of percentage, is almost certain to make it to third (it may already be third whenever you are reading this), and has an outside chance to climb to second.
Xbox Series X and Series S have been deemed a disappointment in some outlets, but in terms of top-three percentage share it is currently the second-best generational bronze medalist in our survey,
Because one can credibly argue that Switch is on its own track while PlayStation 5 and Xbox X.S. are more obviously fighting in the same lane, I thought it would also be worth seeing how the two unambiguously home consoles fare against each other one-on-one.
- PlayStation 5: 62.1%
- Xbox X.S.: 37.9%
PlayStation 5 clearly has the better of the generation in North America, and even more so outside of North America, highlighting why the Xbox line is seen by some as struggling. This also highlights why I criticized comparing PSP’s sales to fourth generation home consoles. As we will see further down, Xbox X.S. has already sold more units in North America than the Sega Genesis, and it is may well catch the fourth generation winner, Super Nintendo, when its true final numbers come in.
Eighth Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sony PlayStation 4 | 2013-11 to 2024-03 | 38.12 | 49.35 |
| Microsoft Xbox One | 2013-11 to 2020-01 | 32.97 | 42.68 |
| Nintendo Wii U | 2012-11 to 2017-02 | 6.15 | 7.96 |
Eighth generation was the closest thing to a two-console generation in North America since fourth, with Nintendo’s Wii U being the weakest third-place finisher since generation five. PlayStation 4 came close to hitting the 50% mark (it may do so yet when it is all said and done), while Xbox One is (to date) one of only two runners-up to clear 40% share.
Seventh Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Xbox 360 | 2005-11 to 2016-04 | 46.14 | 38.08 |
| Nintendo Wii | 2006-11 to 2014-05 | 45.41 | 37.48 |
| Sony PlayStation 3 | 2006-11 to 2016-11 | 29.60 | 24.43 |
In a striking contrast to the eighth generation, seventh generation was the strongest three-console race. This was Sony’s first “loss” since entering the console wars in the fifth generation, but it posted the best bronze medal finish (in terms of both total sales and market share) with PlayStation 4. PlayStation 4 was the clear, and sometimes close, runner-up to Wii outside North America. I had thought that Nintendo Wii was the sixth generation winner, and it certainly was outside of North America, but the VGChartz numbers give the smallest of edges to Xbox 360. This is the only generation where VGChartz’s numbers do not have any console hitting 40% top-three market share.
(While Nintendo stopped producing the Wii in 2016, I wrote a research article on the subject of the last Nintendo Wii games, which would come several years later.)
Sixth Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sony PlayStation 2 | 2000-03 to 2013-01 | 53.65 | 65.45 |
| Microsoft Xbox | 2001-11 to 2006 | 15.77 | 19.24 |
| Nintendo GameCube | 2001-09 to 2007-02 | 12.55 | 15.31 |
This is the one generation where my top-three rule has an obvious impact. VGChartz has Sega Dreamcast at 3.90 million sales in North America. While that was only good for a distant fourth-place finish in sixth generation, it would have shifted the percent share had I included it. PlayStation 2’s four-console share would have been 62.48% instead of its 65.45% three-console share. Speaking of PlayStation 2, it was dominant in sixth generation, selling enough to still be the second-best selling home console in North America (or best if you exclude the hybrid Switch) and rendering both Xbox and GameCube to very second-tier status (while pushing Sega out of the home console market entirely).
Fifth Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sony PlayStation | 1994-12 to 2006-03 | 40.78 | 65.02 |
| Nintendo 64 | 1996-06 to 2002 | 20.11 | 32.06 |
| Sega Saturn | 1995-05 to 1998-03 | 1.83 | 2.92 |
Sixth generation was not Sony’s first dominant win. It entered the console market in the fifth generation with the first PlayStation, and proceeded to hit 65% top-three market share in North America. Sony’s share was inflated by Sega Saturn’s poor third-place showing, but we need not over-sell that point. Firstly, Saturn flopped in large part because of the success of PlayStation. Secondly, Nintendo 64 sold almost as well as Nintendo’s fourth generation winner in terms of units moved, highlighting that PlayStation’s impressive percent share is owed largely to its own performance (it was the best-selling home console through fifth generation). Fifth generation presents an interesting regional difference: While Sega Saturn barely registered in the end in North America, it narrowly outsold Nintendo 64 for distant second-place in Japan.
Fourth Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Nintendo Entertainment System | 1991-08 to 1999 | 22.88 | 54.31 |
| Sega Genesis | 1989-08 to 1998 | 18.50 | 43.92 |
| TurboGrafix-16 | 1989-08 to 1994-05 | 0.75 | 1.78 |
My first console was the Sega Genesis, so fourth generation is nostalgic to me and where the concept of console wars in America came to be. Genesis had a head start on the generation and established Sega as a heavy-hitter in North America (its prior console found more success outside North America), but it was eventually narrowly over-taken by the Super Nintendo. Fourth generation was very much a two-console race in North America, with TurboGrafix 16 and various other market entrants (Atari Jaguar and 3DO being the two most notable ones) finishing far in the rear-view mirror. It was also another generation with regional differences. TurboGrafix-16 significantly outsold Genesis in Japan while Genesis was the generation’s winner in Europe. Returning to North America, Genesis has the best percent-share for a runner-up in our survey.
Third Generation
| Console | Life-Span | NA Sales | Top-3 Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Entertainment System | 1985-10 to 1995-08 | 33.49 | 85.30 |
| Atari 7800 | 1986-05 to 1992-01 | 3.77 | 9.60 |
| Sega Master System | 1986-1992 | 2.00 | 5.09 |
I begin (or end, going in reverse-order) our survey with the third generation. In North America, the Nintendo Entertainment System thoroughly dominated affairs, eclipsing second generation king Atari’s third-generation offering and Sega’s first foray outside of Japan. No console since third dominated its peers in North America like the NES, and for a variety of historical reasons NES has a strong case as the most significant console of all time. Of course, this is another case where regional differences are significant. NES only narrowly outsold Master System in Europe and was significantly outsold outside of North America, Japan, and Europe (thanks in no small part to Master System’s unique success in Brazil).
Highest In-Generation Market-Share
- Nintendo Entertainment System (3rd): 85.30%
- Sony PlayStation 2 (6th): 65.45%
- Sony PlayStation (5th): 65.02%
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System (4th): 54.31%
- Nintendo Switch (9th): 51.31%
- Sony PlayStation 4 (8th): 49.35%
- Sega Genesis (4th): 43.92%
- Microsoft Xbox One (8th): 42.68%
- Microsoft Xbox 360 (7th): 38.08%
- Nintendo Wii (7th): 37.48%
Analysis
Our survey shows what any historian of video games in the United States would have guessed: The NES was more dominant relative to its peers than any other console from generations 3-9. So complete was the NES’s dominance that it was still the third-best selling American console through the sixth generation, despite having been active at a time when the universe of potential video game buyers was much smaller than in the mid-to-late 2000s).
But was the NES the most impressive console in terms of success in the United States? That is a different question.
Cutting against NES would be an argument that it did not face the same sort of competition that top consoles in later generations were (in terms of resources and whatnot, not necessarily quality). Atari was not in a great place after the video game crash of 1983 and Sega’s Master System failed to gain much traction in the United States. However, one could make a fair counter-point against the weak competition argument. While NES was wholly dominant in North America and Japan, Sega Master System was competitive with it in Europe (NES 8.30 million to Master System’s 6.95) and stronger outside of the three main regions. I have a Master System (obtained well after it was sunsetted in the United States) and can confirm it is a good console with many good games, so one should credit the NES for relegating it to an afterthought (along with the Atari 7800, which I never had or played) in North America and Japan.
NES’s most obvious rival for the crown of most impressive console in terms of performance is the PlayStation 2. Sony entered the sixth generation with a head of steam after dominating the fifth generation with the original PlayStation. While they were close in terms of market share (it is possible PlayStation 1 had the slightly bigger share were we to count all console sales from the generation, given Sega Dreamcast’s unusually high sales for a fourth-place console in generation six), PlayStation 2 shattered total sales records and did so in a generation with three competitive rivals instead of one. Although my survey is North America-only, another feather in the cap of both PlayStations is that they were dominant in every region, standing above and apart in Europe, Japan, and outside of the big three.
Nintendo Switch also merits mention. As of publication time, it is the best-selling console in North America and hanging on to just over 50%-three console market share. Its best region (in terms of share) is Japan, although it has been relegated to second-place in Europe and non-NA/Europe/Japan by the PlayStation 4. However, Switch’s dual console/handheld status, its significant head-start on its rivals (which may lead to the gap narrowing), and the fact that some of its sales are the handheld-only Switch Lite do introduce some caveats in a survey which otherwise consists exclusively of TV-bound consoles.
For whatever it is worth, I present my totally subjective and non-scientific top-seven most impressive consoles, considering their performance against peers in North America.
- PlayStation 2
- NES
- PlayStation
- Switch
- Xbox 360 & Wii
- SNES
Note that this is not my “favorite consoles” list. I played both GameCube and Xbox more than PlayStation 2 during sixth generation (although I would take PlayStation 2 over Xbox these days) and I was very much a Nintendo 64 person in generation five (exempting the classic Harvest Moon: Back to Nature on PlayStation, of course). My nostalgic first console, the Sega Genesis, is not on the list.
I give the nod to PlayStation 2 over NES because it dominated more well-resourced rivals in Microsoft (which was a unique upstart given its dominance in home computing), Nintendo, and Sega, even granting that NES clobbered the previously mighty Atari in the third generation. I will also venture that PlayStation 2’s total sales are at least comparable to NES’s from a smaller market. Finally, while my survey is North America-only, I did consider that PlayStation 2’s dominance was universal while NES had a legitimate rival in Europe (I would put less weight on outside NA-JP-EU when looking at the 1980s).
For third-place, I give the narrow nod to PlayStation over Switch, at least in part because I think evaluating Switch in a home console-only survey is complicated, and in part because Switch’s market share lead in ninth generation may yet shrink a bit over time. PlayStation’s market share is inflated by the failure of Saturn in North America, but one must consider that PlayStation’s success was a significant reason why Saturn failed in North America. PlayStation also deserves credit for winning decisively in all regions, including in Japan where Saturn was successful in terms of console sales.
I called fifth place a tie between Xbox 360 and Wii. I subjectively think Wii was a more significant and successful console with its innovations and early strength in the generation (not to mention being a rebound for Nintendo after relative disappointments in the 5th and 6th generations), but given that Xbox 360 narrowly edged it in the final sales, they go together. Both performed better than their market share would indicate because PlayStation 3 was a strong console as well (second to Wii in both Europe and Japan), despite under-performing the first two PlayStations.
Finally, I give the seventh place nod to Super Nintendo, which had the fourth-best in-generation market share. A few things complicate SNES’s case. Firstly, it significantly undersold NES. Even when we consider the fact that more total consoles were sold among the top three in fourth generation than third, it is hard to ignore the fact that many North American NES owners did not “upgrade” to SNES. That, combined with the fact that it was close to parity with the Sega Genesis and fourth generation had the softest third-place finisher in terms of total sales does tend to cut against arguments in favor of SNES’s in-generation performance. With that being said, Sega Genesis slightly outsold SNES in Europe (not that we needed international evidence that Genesis was a good console) and while TurboGrafix-16 was not successful in North America, it posted a strong (albeit distant) second-place finish in Japan (in Japan, TurbGrafix-16 out-sold notable out-of-generation consoles including Atari 7600, Sega Master System, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64). Finally, both SNES and Genesis deserve credit for holding off more powerful rivals such as 3DO and Atari Jaguar, which emerged with some fanfare prior to the true dawn of the fifth generation, before flopping.
Conclusion
I did not conduct this simple, very non-scientific survey to definitively answer which console was most impressive (in terms of sales performance) in North America. A more comprehensive assessment would contemplate things like game sales and overall profit in addition to consoles moved. (E.g., The prohibitively expensive Neo Geo home console (part of 4th generation), which focused on bringing arcade-perfect ports to the living room, was not a true rival to SNES and Genesis, but it was not a failure in its specific context.) Moreover, more granular year-by-year sales statistics would be instructive, especially since the consoles do not over-lap perfectly.
I conducted this survey to encourage people to think about video game consoles in a way that is fair to the consoles and the people who worked on them. For example, it would be unfair for a revisionist historian to argue that SNES and Sega Genesis, consoles which defined video gaming in America for millions of kids, were unsuccessful because they did not sell as many units in North America as any of the top-three consoles of generation seven. The video game market is different, and bigger, in modern times than in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Similarly, regarding the PlayStation Portable (since that was what prompted this article), one must pin down what they are evaluating. It would be unfair to call PlayStation Portable a failure because it did not proverbially dethrone Nintendo in the handheld space. It was successful in its own right and certainly when compared to prior non-Nintendo handhelds. Similarly, it would be unfair to compare home consoles unfavorably to PlayStation Portable given that they were competing in a different area of the video game market.
I hope that my little survey highlighted some of these issues and that it will inspire someone with more data and ideas on how to use it to come up with a more interesting system for evaluating commercial successes and failures in video game history.
