The Best-Selling Nintendo Consoles

In terms of the most successful and well-known video game companies, Nintendo has to be at the top. From its humble beginnings as a playing card and then toy company to its revitalization of the American video game industry with the NES, Nintendo has a rich history that is inextricably tied to the history and evolution of video games and interactive media, so of course the company is also responsible for some of the best-selling home consoles. Most notably, the Nintendo Switch recently claimed the honor of being the best-selling console in the US, taking the spot previously held by the PlayStation 2 and being on track to challenge it for its supremacy as the best-selling worldwide video game console. But including the Switch, Nintendo has an impressive 6 consoles in the top 10 best-selling pieces of video game hardware, more than any other company.

• Release Date — November 18, 2012
• Launch Price — $299/$349
• End of Production — 2017
• Best-Selling Game — Mario Kart 8 (8.46 million units)
• Total Sales — 13.56 million units

Even the best video game companies make the occasional stumble, and that's precisely what the Wii U was for Nintendo. Released at a time when support for the Wii was slowly starting to wind down and competitors Sony and Microsoft were gearing up to release their 8th generation consoles (the PlayStaiton 4 and Xbox One, respectively), the Wii U was almost too little, too early, and it arrived practically dead in the water. Even an impressive amount of third-party support couldn't help the Wii U shake the impression that it was just a barely enhanced Wii, and the somewhat confusing naming of the console didn't help. But, despite being Nintendo's worst-selling console, the Wii U still managed to move almost 14 million units in a showcase of how strong the Nintendo brand is.

• Release Date — September 14, 2001
• Launch Price — $199
• End of Production — 2007
• Best-Selling Game — Super Smash Bros. Melee (7.41 million units)
• Total Sales — 21.74 million units

Released in North America just two months after its Japanese launch, and on the same day as the debut of Microsoft's Xbox, the GameCube is Nintendo's 6th generation console and the successor to the Nintendo 64. The GameCube would end up being an important step for Nintendo, marking the first time the company moved from cartridges to optical discs (though still using its own proprietary format) and boasting an impressive array of launch titles to help distinguish it from both the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. Of course, the appeal of the GameCube was largely tied to the first-party Nintendo software for the console, with all-time classics like Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, and Super Smash Bros. Melee calling the platform home.

• Release Date — June 23, 1996
• Launch Price — $199
• End of Production — 2003
• Best-Selling Game — Super Mario 64 (11.91 million units)
• Total Sales — 32.93 million units

Nintendo is a company you can almost always count on to do its own thing, and there was never a time in its history when that was clearer than with the launch of the Nintendo 64. Opting to use its own proprietary cartridge format at a time when competitors Sega and Sony were making the move to CD-ROM, the limits on the Nintendo 64's storage capabilities and processing power forced developers to get creative with the hardware, resulting in some of the all-time greatest games of the 5th generation. While the Nintendo 64 only sold a fraction of units as the PlayStation (the undisputed winner of the 5th generation console wars), it was home to two of the most important video games ever made that helped signal the true beginning of 3D gaming: Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

• Release Date — November 21, 1990
• Launch Price — $199
• End of Production — 2003
• Best-Selling Game — Super Mario World (20.61 million units)
• Total Sales — 49.1 million units

At the time of its release, the SNES was a major gamble for Nintendo. While the video game markets in both Japan and Europe had never experienced a crash, the American video game industry had only just recovered from the crash of 1983, helped in large part by the "lightning in a bottle" success of Nintendo's NES. So to release a "next generation" console at a time when consumers were completely unfamiliar with the concept (one that wasn't backward compatible with NES cartridges, no less) was a risk. What saved the SNES and Nintendo was the company's very public commitment to continue supporting the NES, all while making the SNES surprisingly affordable (costing barely more than the NES Control Deck's MSRP, regardless of inflation) and packing it with one of the best games ever made: Super Mario World.

• Release Date — July 15, 1983 (Famicom)
• Launch Price — $180
• End of Production — 1995
• Best-Selling Game — Super Mario Bros. (40.24 million units)
• Total Sales — 61.91 million units

By 1983, the video game craze in North America came to a screeching halt thanks to a number of factors, the most prominent of which were declining interest and a lack of quality control among software publishers. At the same time, across the Pacific, Nintendo would debut its Family Computer in Japan ("Famicom" for short), seeing incredible success with its attempt to break into Japan's growing home computer market.

By late 1984, Nintendo would begin to formulate plans to bring the Famicom to the West, and to do so, they figured out a way to market it not as a video game, but as an experience, resulting in its rebranding to the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. It was a brilliant strategy that not only paid off in the console selling an unheard of (for its time) 62 million units, but also completely revitalized the video game industry in the US.

• Release Date — February 26, 2011
• Launch Price — $249.99
• End of Production — 2020
• Best-Selling Game — Mario Kart 7 (18.99 million units)
• Total Sales — 75.94 million units

Following up the colossal success of the Nintendo DS could have been a challenge for Nintendo, but the company instead chose to stick to its guns and adopt a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" policy with the Nintendo DS. Slightly more powerful than the base Nintendo DS, similarly sleek in form factor to the DS Lite, and including the unique ability to render games in stereoscopic 3D at a time when 3D technology was in the midst of a short-lived comeback, the Nintendo 3DS was basically "the DS, but better", and its backwards compatibility with DS cartridges all but ensured it would be a major hit for Nintendo. And, as it turns out, the 3DS would be the pillar propping up Nintendo's hardware business throughout most of the 2010s following the flop of the Wii U.

• Release Date — March 21, 2001
• Launch Price — $99.99
• End of Production — 2010
• Best-Selling Game — Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (16.22 million units)
• Total Sales — 81.51 million units

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color are two of the most iconic and important handheld consoles to ever release, and Nintendo's follow-up would prove to be almost as successful thanks to its expanded color palette, 16-bit graphics capability, and backwards compatibility with all Game Boy and Game Boy Color software. The Game Boy Advance would originally release in 2001, and Nintendo would continue to support the handheld for almost 10 years, including several different iterations of hardware like the Game Boy Advance SP and Advance Mini. Looking back at the software lineup for the Game Boy Advance, it's easy to see why the console was so successful, especially considering the rising popularity of Pokémon and its place as a handheld-specific series.

• Release Date — November 19, 2006
• Launch Price — $249.99
• End of Production — 2013
• Best-Selling Game — Wii Sports (82.9 million units)
• Total Sales — 101.63 million units

Considering how both the Nintendo 64 and GameCube had earned a respectable second or third place in previous console generations, almost no one expected Nintendo's 7th-generation console to become the undisputed winner of the era's console wars, but that's precisely what the Wii accomplished. Utilizing a unique and novel motion control scheme that leveled the playing field and made it easier for casual gamers to pick up and play, the Wii was the kind of console that crossed generational boundaries, with grandparents and lifelong non-gamers getting just as much fun out of Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy as hardcore gaming enthusiasts. And, much like it did with the SNES and Super Mario World, Nintendo's decision to include Wii Sports as a pack-in for the Wii immensely helped its success.

• Release Date — April 21, 1989 (Game Boy); October 21, 1998 (Game Boy Color)
• Launch Price — $89.99 (Game Boy); $79.95 (Game Boy Color)
• End of Production — 2003
• Best-Selling Game — Pokémon Red and Blue (46 million units)
• Total Sales — 118.69 million units

For years, the Game Boy would be the best-selling console of all time, and it's surprising to think that this little handheld once held that honor until you realize that its system pack-in is perhaps the greatest video game ever made: Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris. There were other versions of Tetris long before the Game Boy release (including an excellent one for the NES), but the Game Boy allowed players to finally take the thrill of the Russian falling block puzzler from beyond the Iron Curtain on the go, and gaming was never the same. The success of the Game Boy (and later, the Game Boy Color) inspired all other video game hardware manufacturers to try their hand at a handheld console, and not a single one could come close to the appeal and success of Nintendo's monochromatic, 8-bit wonder.

• Release Date — March 3, 2017
• Launch Price — $299.99
• End of Production — N/A
• Best-Selling Game — Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (68.2 million units)
• Total Sales — 152.12 million units

The success of the Nintendo Switch was anything but a guarantee after the flop of the Wii U, but the decision to combine Nintendo's success in the handheld market with its long-standing know-how of home console design to create the world's first "Hybrid" console was a stroke of genius. The Switch would be slightly less powerful than its PS4 and Xbox One competition, but the ability to take its games on the go as well as play them on large displays gave it an edge that those consoles didn't have.

Throw in incredible third-party and indie developer support, and you have a unit that just about does it all. It's no wonder that the Nintendo Switch would end up being Nintendo's longest-running piece of home console hardware, and even with the Switch 2 launch around the corner, I wouldn't expect the company to cease production on the original Switch anytime soon.

• Release Date — November 21, 2004
• Launch Price — $149.99
• End of Production — 2014
• Best-Selling Game — New Super Mario Bros. (30.80 million units)
• Total Sales — 154.02 million units

Surprisingly, the Nintendo DS isn't just Nintendo's best-selling console; it's also the second-best-selling game console of all time, sitting just slightly behind the PlayStation 2 in terms of its all-time worldwide sales. But the appeal of the Nintendo DS is hard to ignore when you look at both its functionality and its software library. Released to compete with Sony's PSP, the Nintendo DS came out of the gate strong with its unique dual-screen design and touch screen functionality, not to mention its ability to play every single past generation of handheld Nintendo games thanks to its compatibility with Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges.