Sony has just released the data related to the sales of its Playstation 4 console, which includes all the variants of the latter: PS4, PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro. From the company they have announced that the console has exceeded a whopping 102, 8 million units sold since its launch back in 2013, thus becoming the second best-selling desktop console in history, just behind the Playstation 2. Within the ranking of best-selling consoles in history, it remains in fourth position : behind the Game Boy and Game Boy Color and ahead of the original Playstation . The rest of the positions are occupied by the series of consoles that we will see below.
1 - Playstation 2 (155 million units sold)
Not the original Game Boy, not even the first generation of Sony's console. The best-selling console in history is the Playstation 2. First released in 2000, it was the first desktop console to support DVD playback as well as music CDs.
After 13 years of continuous support from development studios, FIFA 14 and PES 2014 were the last titles released for the Sony console.
2 - Nintendo DS (154 million units sold)
No version of the Nintendo DS has managed to overshadow the original DS and its respective variants (DS Lite, DSi, etc.). It was released just four years later than the Playstation 2, and it was not until 2013 that support was officially discontinued through Nintendo.
With 154 million units sold worldwide, the last game released for the console was Big Hero 6 , in 2015. Just four years ago!
3 - Game Boy and Game Boy Color (119 million units)
They could not miss those that are possibly the most enigmatic Nintendo consoles. The original Game Boy, which turned 30 yesterday, was the first commercial portable console to hit the market; no less than in 1989 .
With successive versions over the years, its production was abandoned back in 2001. As a curiosity, Pokémon Yellow was the last title in the famous saga that came to the Game Boy . Subsequently, successive generations were released on Game Boy Advance, something more powerful than the previous generation.
4 - Playstation 4 (102.8 million units sold)
We come to what today has become the second best-selling Sony console in history and the fourth according to the global ranking. Although it has not yet been officially discontinued, Sony is already talking about a possible launch of the Playstation 5 in 2020; just six years after the launch of the first PS4 .
Despite this, it is most likely that both consoles will coexist for at least three or four years , as we already saw with PS4 and PS5.
5 - Original Playstation (102.5 million units sold)
Although Spain did not become popular until a few years after its launch, the original presentation by Sony takes us until 1994. A quarter of a century!
Its great success was due, in large part, to the quality of the titles that were released for the console (Tekken, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, FIFA…), the 3D graphics that it presented and the compatibility with CD-ROM to reproduce music. Although the most curious thing about the first generation Playstation is without a doubt its discontinuation date: until 2006, thus coexisting with the PS2 and the PS3 .
6 - Nintendo Wii (101.6 million units sold)
Nintendo's most popular desktop console. Far from the Nintendo Switch, with just over 35 million units sold , the Nintendo Wii managed to surpass 101 million sales worldwide thanks to its interaction through gestures and movements.
Part of its success was also influenced by the possibility of hacking its system to install games downloaded from the Internet . It is also curious that the console was not discontinued until 2017 in Australia and North America (2014 in Europe) after having been on the market for more than ten years.
7 - Playstation 3 (87.4 million units sold)
The third iteration of Playstation that also sided with the Playstation 2 and the original Playstation during the first year of its release, back in 2006.
It was the first console to introduce the Next Gen concept, with graphics that took a giant leap compared to the consoles that were on the market at that time. Beyond the graphic quality of its titles, the main novelty was found inside: for the first time its architecture was based on that of a computer .
For this reason, some companies ported their respective games to PC, although the lack of optimization of them was later revealed against Sony consoles. Special mention to the compatibility with Blue Ray discs .
8 - Xbox 360 (85.8 million units sold)
Microsoft's response to the PS3 was also successful during the time of its departure. With nearly 86 million units distributed across the globe, it was designed in collaboration with IBM and ATI (now AMD) .
Introduced in 2015, it was famous for presenting a lower performance than Playstation 4. Due to the high manufacturing cost, the company put into circulation two variants of this same console: the Xbox 360 Elite and the Xbox 360 Arcade , which would later be renamed Premium and Core.
Later another package with the name of Elite was launched, in addition to the S series and E series, the last distributed version of the 360 in 2013.
9 - Game Boy Advance (81.5 million units sold)
Manufactured from 2001 to 2008. It was not a very big evolution if we talk about its technical section. In screen resolution, the improvement was practically negligible: from 160 x 144 pixels to 240 x 160 pixels .
To this is added that the first titles did not have gamma correction to highlight the colors of the LCD panel. Until the arrival of the SP version it did not have a backlit screen or a battery .
10 - PSP (76.4 million units sold)
Sony's answer to Nintendo in portable consoles came from the hand of the PSP, also known as Playstation Portable. It was presented in 2004, and throughout its history it has presented such symbolic games as the Grand Theft Auto saga , God of War, Metal Gear or Kingdom Hearts .
Unfortunately the PS Vita was not so popular. The number of units sold does not exceed 20 million .