Talk:List of best-selling game consoles

Update PS5 sales

Can someone with editing rights update the PS5 total to 74.9 million?

This is being quoted from Sony's own official data, see: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-sold-749-million-playstation-5s-130021792.html

First paragraph there has a link to a PDF on Sony's website. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7C:9249:3B00:39BC:AFC6:F775:7BD9 (talk) 20:13, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

PS2 sold 160M

Please change Playstation 2 units sold from ">155 million" to ">160 million". Source: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/playstation-history/2000-ps2-psp/ Arielzao150 (talk) 19:37, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

 Not done This has been discussed in the past. We go by the last official company figure, not an off-hand passing comment made by an exec well after the fact. Sergecross73 msg me 19:42, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

This is different because the official PlayStation website says that the PS2 has sold over 160 million units, rather than just Jim Ryan. 2A00:23C6:D584:5B01:68E7:742:D5B6:C40E (talk) 19:52, 26 November 2024 (UTC)

This isn't an official update either. Just a promotional page. Unlikely the person even doing it has any hard numbers. Once they release proper documentation then this should be updated to that. Winter Hendrik (talk) 02:35, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

At this point it is the best you are going to get from Sony, because they do not have any real reason to talk about the PS2's sales to investors. Just accept that it has sold over 160 million units. 2A00:23C6:D584:5B01:A94A:8A96:7043:4FE8 (talk) 03:13, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Surely, nobody is actually stupid enough to believe the PS2 magically sold an additional 5 million units after it ceased production.

They're only doing this to make sure the Nintendo Switch doesn't dethrone its record. KalloFox34 (talk) 19:15, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

They have in their business and data reports written that there were "more than 160 million units sold to retailers and distributers (sell-in data)". Sony has not released anything about the actual sell-through data, so all we know is how many consoles where made and sold to distributers/retailers and not how many customers bought a PS2.

I find it a bad practice to not even write this down in the table made ranking the consoles.

Source:https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/ 95.99.142.42 (talk) 19:02, 1 February 2025 (UTC)

I find it hard to believe that an official website from the console manufacturer cannot be used as a source. At the very least it should be noted that the 160m units figure was mentioned both in the podcast and this website. Bro3256 (talk) 03:30, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Bruh, you didn't even read the source and just assumed it's the same one as before. Come on, you can do better than that as an Admin. Samhiuy (talk) 04:29, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Please note that the change has been made and I haven't undone it. Sergecross73 msg me 11:40, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Whoa when did ps2 produce an extra 5 million units? As far as manufacturing goes, 155 million is the official Sony company number. We don’t just get to say that the 5 million units that took time to sell during the final years, if anything, were also manufactured. Retailers and distributors had already bought them from Sony long before. WOWLWOWL 02:51, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

It does seem interesting that as the Switch slowly death crawls close to the PS2 number, another 5 million as if my magic appears out of nowhere.Halbared (talk) 14:14, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Agreed. And it being such a round number really makes it feel more like an approximation for marketing materials than an exact figure. I'm not particularly endorsing the number, just not sure of an alternative approach at the moment. Sergecross73 msg me 14:27, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

The website wouldn't say "over 160 million" if they were rounding up the number. So if the number is approximate that means that they were rounding down. Limricks (talk) 22:12, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

There's sources pointing out it's weird too so it's not just me. Sergecross73 msg me 22:22, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

It's certainly surprising, but that isn't reason enough to doubt it. That gamesradar article doesn't seem to doubt it either, as it says: "Initially, it does sound a bit weird. However, it wasn't until the very end of 2012 that Sony announced it was ceasing production of the console (thanks, Famitsu), so there were still more of them being made for several months after those last official sales numbers were released. Of course, that's not to mention any additional stock on the shelves that hadn't been sold by the time of the previous headcount. Being able to shift an extra five million of the things brand new after 12 or more years is still very surprising, but not impossible – it is a fantastic console, after all." Limricks (talk) 23:09, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Looks like someone associated with PlayStation is rigging the total sales now. They know what is going to happen soon to the record. 2601:3C5:8180:31D0:897F:A9C8:CE7F:C7F2 (talk) 09:13, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Regardless of whether or not value is legit, I would argue it's far too imprecise to actually belong on the list. Every other value on this list is from an actual sales report or a third party source with at least one, often two digits of precision. This, meanwhile, is from a first-party marketing/hype site that is clearly rounding, has dubious authenticity, and is being called out industry-wide as being extremely questionable.

I would argue that this absolutely does not meet a WP:Reliable_sources. If and when Sony provides actual sales numbers, sure. But this is marketing fluff, and Wikipedia is not for Sponsored Content. 174.105.82.38 (talk) 06:00, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Include note for consoles with backward compatibility

Should an indicator for console backward compatibility be added into the table? For example, indicate that the PlayStation 5 is backward compatible with the PlayStation 4, or Nintendo 3DS is backward compatible with the Nintendo DS. The rationale is that these newer consoles cannibalise sales of the old console, but continue to contribute to sales of software for the old console; e.g. a lot of PS4 games continue to be purchased by PS5 owners. TenthAvenueFreezeOut (talk) 08:03, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

No, this has nothing to do with sales, it shouldn't be documented here. Sergecross73 msg me 11:39, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

I'm not sure that one can say it has nothing to do with sales, as backwards compatibility means a console has a larger game library right from the start and can contribute to new console sales by people sticking with that ecosystem. Also customers know they can continue the use their existing games.

That said, that's a level of analysis that is outside the scope of this article, which is just a list and not supposed to have much analysis at all. The lead briefly defines the categories because the chart includes that, and some figures need explanatory footnotes, but analysis of the "why" a console sold well or not is not the purpose of this list. If anyone wants to know features of a console and an analysis of its market outcomes, all they have to do is click the link to that console's article. oknazevad (talk) 15:01, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Of course it can affect sales, but what I'm saying that it falls outside of the scope of this article. We shouldn't cover it in the same way we shouldn't cover launch price or size dimensions - yes, they all affect sales, but they have nothing to do with documenting the subject of "best-selling". We've got individual console articles that can (and do) document this. Sergecross73 msg me 15:09, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Lead Concerns

Why does the article's lead focus on the history of gaming consoles as a whole? I get that additional context should be added to readers unfamiliar with them, but I'd expect more commentary on the best-selling consoles themselves, like a brief history on their evolution sales-wise. As in, how the PS2 is the current best-selling one, the Atari 2600 being the best-selling console of its generation, the NES holding the record until the PlayStation, and how the PS1 became the first to reach 100 million, etc. If I offered an official suggestion, I'd surmise something like this:

• P1: The best-selling home console and handheld console
• P2: Brief explanations on handheld, home and dedicated consoles (akin to lead currently)
• P3: History of best-selling home consoles + best-selling handhelds
• P4: Historical milestones (first to reach 10 million, 20 million, 50, 100, etc.)
• P5: Best-selling per generation(?)

I'd edit this directly, but I'd prefer to gain some consensus and also allow editors to find sources for these if possible. Thanks, PantheonRadiance (talk) 22:30, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

I agree with the concerns. I was reviewing it once in recent memory, and was going to tweak it. But the more I read, the more I wanted to rework almost all of it, and I wasnt ready to do a complete rewrite, so I didn't end up messing with it. Sergecross73 msg me 23:07, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Fair enough, I think it would be good to refrain from changing it until a solid layout is found that works. Admittedly I'm trying to find extra sources from a historical standpoint (akin to highest-grossing films), but besides this, I've come up a bit short. PantheonRadiance (talk) 23:15, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Therein lay the rub, that to add material analyzing the figures, we need sources analyzing the figures or we run into a WP:SYNTH issue. I'm sure such sources could be found; any industry as large as video games is going to have discussion about sales and other financial metrics even from non-specialist sources. But we need to find them first and report what they say. oknazevad (talk) 23:58, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Yep, definitely. I'll try to find more sources within the next week or so and compile them here. If anyone else is interested, feel free to find more too. PantheonRadiance (talk) 06:00, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

Giving my tuppence; I like p1, p2 & p3, I am not keen on arbitrary milestones, or the best selling generation. I feel that is too basic and lacking the nuance that occurred when Atari appeared which was a cultural shift and everyone played games then, pub culture added to it as did arcade culture, then games became for children mostly and then games swung back to include adults moving into the noughties. So the possible market (in relation to £ to other entertainments) shrank as more units were shifted, plus the world population has more than doubled since Atari got here and now here are markets worldwide. Halbared (talk) 08:30, 28 March 2025 (UTC)