Video Game Sales with Paul Gale Network
Hi everyone, Nintendo just released their massive quarter financial results, representing hardware and software data from October 1st, 2023 – December 31st, 2023 (their Q3) and with this information, I am happy to present you with Nintendo’s All-time hardware and software units sold!
Hardware:
1) Nintendo DS – 154.02m
2) Nintendo Switch – 139.36m
3) Game Boy – 118.69m
4) Wii – 101.63
5) Game Boy Advance – 81.51m
6) Nintendo 3DS – 75.94m
7) Nintendo Entertainment System – 61.91m
8) Super Nintendo Entertainment System – 49.10m
9) Nintendo 64 – 32.93m
10) Nintendo GameCube – 21.74m
11) Wii U – 13.56m
12) Virtual Boy – .77+m (This is the last Virtual Boy figure provided, though it did sell after. How much exactly is unknown.)
Total Nintendo hardware from the above consoles = 851,160,000 (851.16 million)
Color TV = 2m
Game & Watch (This is not including the Mario and Zelda editions) = 43.4m
NES and SNES Classic = 13+m (NES Classic’s last released, individual figure was 3.6m and SNES Classic’s last released, individual figure was 5.28m, yet Nintendo did state that both combined have sold more than 13m. [That was the last update, though it is likely higher at this point, even if neither have been sold in a while (being February, 2022.)]
Software:
1) Nintendo Switch – 1b 200.10m
2) Wii – 921.85m
3) Nintendo DS – 948.76m
4) Game Boy – 501.11m
5) Nintendo Entertainment System – 500.01m
6) Nintendo 3DS – 391.85m
7) Super Nintendo Entertainment System – 379.06m
8) Game Boy Advance – 377.42m
9) Nintendo 64 – 224.97m
10) Nintendo GameCube – 208.58m
11) Wii U – 103.60m
12) Virtual Boy – 1m (approximate) (This was a number loosely provided to me and could be under/over the actual.)
Total software sold from the above Nintendo consoles = 5,758,310,000 (5.75831 billion)
Stats:
Famicom (Japan’s NES) released on July 15th, 1983.
From July, ’83 to December, ’23: 40 years and 5 months (40.416 years) have passed, with 851,160,000 consoles being sold.
This is an average of 21,059,976 Nintendo consoles being sold per year during that time.
North America didn’t get NES until October 15th, 1985, with other regions receiving NES in 1986, 1987, and 1993. If we just use the North American NES release, from October, ’85 to December, ’21: 38 years and 2 months (38.166 years) have passed, with 851,160,000 consoles being sold (including Japan’s total from their 2 year and 3 month head start), then the average goes up to 22,301,524 Nintendo consoles being sold per year during that time.
Technically, the first figure is the correct one, but it can’t be denied that the second average is also a viable one, as the Nintendo Entertainment System wasn’t out globally for a while after Japan’s Famicom release.
Software average from July, 1983 to December, 2023: 5 billion, 758.31 million over that time = 142,475,999 games sold per year.
Software average from October, 1985 to December, 2023: 5 billion, 758.31 million (including Japan’s total from their 2 year and 3 month head start) = 150,875,386 games sold per year. Once again, the first figure is the correct one, but the second is still viable.
One other stat!
6.765 to 1 is the ratio of software to hardware across Nintendo’s entire history! (Based off the 5,758,310,000 units of software and 851,160,000 units of hardware that have been sold as of December 31st, 2021.)
Note: The total for software is actually higher, but Nintendo does not count every single piece of software in its charts. Regardless, this is wildly impressive and shows Nintendo’s consistency in quality for the last 4 decades in the video game industry. Thank you for your time!