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The best sellers
The Nintendo Switch has been and continues to be a runaway success for Nintendo. It’s sold more than 139 million units and is closing in on the PS2’s record for all-time console sales (152 million). But how does the Switch compare to all of Nintendo’s previous hardware releases in terms of hardware and game sales?
As you’ll see, the Switch is far and away Nintendo’s best-selling home console of all time, but the Nintendo DS outranks it with more than 150 million units sold when combining all of its many permutations. On the other end of the scale, the Wii U is Nintendo’s worst-performing system of any type ever (besides the Virtual Boy), selling just 13.56 million units and shifting just north of 100 million games over its lifetime.
Nintendo seemingly wants to forget the Virtual Boy, as the 1995 machine is not mentioned anywhere on Nintendo’s website. It’s safe to assume that it did not sell very well.
Another notable stat is that the Switch is Nintendo’s first console to ever sell more than 1 billion games, and it currently stands at just over 1.2 billion total. The next closest is the Nintendo DS platform (948.76 million games).
Looking ahead, Nintendo is reportedly gearing up to announce its next console, colloquially called Nintendo Switch 2, and it will surely have big shoes to fill given the enormous success of the Switch. The latest rumor is that Nintendo’s next console has slipped to 2025. Nothing is official as of yet, however. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest Nintendo news.
10: Wii U
- 13.56 million units sold
- 103.6 million games sold
Released in 2012, the Wii U had gigantic shoes to fill, and it did not live up to its predecessor. The Wii U followed the massively popular Wii console that was adopted and embraced by not just gamers but also more of the casual market thanks in part to its motion controls. The Wii U’s big new feature was its tablet screen, which promised an innovative second-screen experience. It succeeded in some respects, but the system just never caught on and took off.
9: Nintendo 64
- 32.93 million units sold
- 224.97 million games sold
The Nintendo 64 was released in 1996 and had a long list of fantastic games, including Super Mario 64–the first 3D Mario game–as well as the iconic shooter GoldenEye 007 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It’s commonly cited as the favorite console among millennials who grew up around the height of the console’s popularity in the ’90s.
8: SNES
- 49.1 million units sold
- 379.06 million games sold
The successor to the NES, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) came out in 1990 and is remembered for its sleeker-looking design and updated controllers, as well as its library of titles including EarthBound, Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Super Mario World. It sold 49.1 million units during its lifetime and almost 400 million games.
7: NES
- 61.91 million units sold
- 500.01 million games sold
The Nintendo Entertainment System or Family Computer in Japan was released in 1985 and was a milestone moment for Nintendo. The revered system used a new type of controller that had a D-pad and the now-iconic A, B, Select, and Start buttons. The system had a host of fantastic and memorable games, including the original Super Mario Bros., Zelda, and Donkey Kong games, as well as Duck Hunt, which came with a plastic gun to shoot birds with.
6: Nintendo 3DS
- 75.94 million units sold
- 391.85 million games sold
The successor to the DS, the 3DS marked a jump forward with its ability to display 3D graphics without requiring 3D glasses, though the feature was de-emphasized over time (with Nintendo even releasing 2DS systems that abandoned it completely). The system is also remembered for its social features like StreetPass and the ability to snap photos with it. If you took it to a Seattle Mariners game back in the day, you could also use it to order food to your seat.
Despite how well it ultimately sold, it got off to a slow-enough start that Nintendo quickly dropped its price and introduced the 3DS Ambassador program for those who purchased it at the higher price tag.
5: Game Boy Advance
- 81.51 million units sold
- 377.42 million games sold
Released in 2011, the Game Boy Advance is a more… advanced Game Boy that succeeded the Game Boy Color. The Game Boy Advance was a compact little machine that came in a variety of colors and had great games like Super Monkey Ball Jr., Advance Wars, Metroid Fusion, and more. Nintendo would later release a redesign called the Game Boy Advance SP that featured a clamshell design that made the system even more compact.
4: Wii
- 101.63 million units sold
- 921.85 million games sold
Released in 2006, the Wii was a bonafide phenomenon. The Wii’s motion controls were theoretically easy to understand and use for a wide audience, and it felt like magic the first time you swung the Wii remote and saw your tennis racket mirror that action on screen in Wii Sports. The system was initially so popular that it was difficult to find, with retailers selling out of their stock for an extended period of time. Nintendo sold more than 900 million games for the Wii, but this also includes pack-in titles like Wii Sports. The Wii will go down in Nintendo’s history as one of its most iconic and beloved platforms, not to mention a gigantic commercial success.
3: Game Boy
- 118.69 million units sold
- 501.11 million games sold
The 1989 original Game Boy is an iconic piece of gaming hardware. It helped popularize the portable console movement and many remember the buzz of excitement from playing Mario games on the go. Of note, the system featured the portable debut of Tetris, helping to boost its popularity to new heights. Also of note is that the Game Boy might not have been a cutting-edge device in terms of tech, but clearly it didn’t need to be. The same could be said for the Wii many years later. The Game Boy would be followed up with a whole array of successors, including Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, leading up to the DS later on.
2: Nintendo Switch
- 139.36 million units sold
- 1.2 billion games sold
Nintendo’s newest console, the Nintendo Switch, is the company’s most successful home console of all time by a wide margin, but it’s not the company’s overall best-selling platform. The Switch launched in 2017 and erased the sour memories of the Wii U with its unique approach that allows users to play the system on their TV or on the go in handheld form. The Switch also became Nintendo’s first console to ever sell more than 1 billion games. As with many of Nintendo’s past successes, there have been multiple iterations of the Switch, including the Switch Lite (which drops the ability to dock with a TV) and OLED model (which offers a much-improved display).
1: Nintendo DS
- 154.02 million units sold
- 948.76 million games sold
Nintendo’s best-selling platform of all time is the Nintendo DS, which has shifted more than 154 million units and moved in excess of 948 million games. Nintendo no longer makes dedicated handheld devices, but the DS, released in 2004, represented Nintendo’s most successful device of all time based on unit sales alone (profitability, however, could be another story). Nintendo launched a number of revisions to the DS, including the DS Lite, the DSi, and the DSi XL.
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