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Nintendo software and hardware sales data from 1983 to present

Celine

Member
This post won't be updated anymore.
Click here to visit the page where the data will be updated from now on.

UPDATED WITH DATA UNTIL JUNE 2021

Note:
It's shipment data provided by Nintendo itself directly from Nintendo's Public Relationship department, Nintendo official site or other reports which used Nintendo's shipment data.
Sales included in the lists pertains:[/B]
- Games published by Nintendo which shipped more than 1 million units.
- Only original game releases are considered (for instance the sales from re-releases on Virtual Console or retro mini consoles aren't include).
- Digital sales are included only for the games that had a digital version available at the time (basically since WiiU/3DS and beyond).
- Digital only games are excluded.


For games released on NES, GB/C,SNES, N64 their LTDs could be considered as definitive.
For games GBA and GC their LTDs can be considered as definitive, top 5 games for each are updated as March 2013 while the rest I suspect is updated as a period between 2009 and 2011 (despite the report citing December 2014).
Note that while the report cites the figures are update as December 2014 I believe this is true only for WiiU and 3DS.
For GBA and GC I believe they are updated as 2009-2011 (after that I think they were considered legacy hardware, some games like Pokémon shipped a few more units after).
Shipment figures updated "as March 2013" came directly from Nintendo.
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask total shipment outside Japan as September 2015 was reported directly by Nintendo.
Hyrule Warriors (WiiU) and Pokkén Tournament (Wiiu) have both shipped more than 1 million worldwide but Nintendo was the publisher for these games only outside Japan and outside Japan these two games didn't cross the million bar therefore they aren't present in the WiiU chart:
https://www.famitsu.com/news/201501/27070268.html
http://bandainamcoent.co.jp/corporate/press/release/62/pdf/20160818-1.pdf
I'm going to keep this thread updated with new, more updated data.
I will usually update the thread yearly (around May each year since it is when Nintendo reveal the results for the full fiscal year).

Note about Pokémon:
Take with a grain of salt Pokémon Yellow and Crystal sales presented in the Game Boy list because contrary of the rest of the entries these two are estimates.
Nintendo's official word is that Pokémon Red/Blue/Green, Yellow, Gold/Silver and Crystal combined have shipped about 76 million units worldwide.

Please take the combined figure instead of the single entries for Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Crystal if you need an official source.


Hardware data is shipment data provided by Nintendo itself as June 2021 (except Virtual Boy, see note below).

Most of these figures can be considered close to definitive with the exception of 3DS and NSW of course.

GB contains GBC sales units as the two are considered one single platform by Nintendo.

Every figure is in million of units.

Include bundled units and downloaded units (for the games which had a digital copy at release so from 3DS/WiiU on ward).

The first wave in the Classic NES Series / Famicom Mini Series / NES Classics for GBA have sold in total 3.92 million units worldwide as September 2004.

Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver source:

Game & Watch data source:
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/clubn/game-and-watch-ball-reward/0/3

Color TV Game 6/15 data source:
Nikkei Electronics May 9, 1994 issue "Famicom Development Story."
http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/special/20080929/1019222/

NES Classic Mini data source:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/04...llion-units-worldwide-before-its-cancellation
SNES Classic Mini data source:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2018/180426e.pdf

Hardware

Videogame Console with interchangeable software** (in million of units):
bnmWaux.jpg


Note: Virtual Boy total shipment is until March 1996. So may not be definitive as the system was discontinued in the fiscal year ending March 1997.

* What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every million-seller.
Since most Nintendo games sell at least 1 million units it should be a close enough approximation.

** Only software which has physical version is considered.
If a game has a physical version and a digital version then it is included but if it is digital only it is excluded.


LSI Game Console (essentially Pong clones)
BBpvwrz.png

Note: More than 70% units sold were Color TV Game 15 consoles.

Game & Watch
riEHysE.png


Plug & Play Retro Console
DeDNp0q.jpg


Note: Combined NES Classic and SNES Classic have shipped more than 13 million units as December 2018.
The sales figure above refer to the last time Nintendo gave specific update for the single console.

Software

Home console
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rKWA7Ai.jpg

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Handheld console
li4501I.jpg

wmqeZLh.jpg

LYZKo65.jpg

GN4nTIg.jpg



Hybrid console
yM63C9R.jpg


Grand total:
As of June 2021 Nintendo has published more than 370 million seller and has sold more than 2.03 billion games.
ctpulY4.jpg



Charts:
hmMLibI.jpg


Note that what is referred as "First-party total software sales" in the graph above is actually only the sum of Nintendo million seller games.
Of course some Nintendo games could have shipped less than 1 million units therefore this is really an approximation of "First-party total software sales".
This approximation however should be close enough to the actual value since historically Nintendo games often ship more than 1 million units therefore composing the majority of the software sales sold by Nintendo.

Nintendo Revenue, Operating and Net Income from 1981 to 2021:

7aPyqWQ.jpg


Nintendo Gross Profit Ratio, Operating Profit Ratio and Net Profit Ratio from 1981 to 2021:
n9aXjvr.jpg


Nintendo Digital Sales from 2006 to 2021:
eSFTux0.jpg


Nintendo R&D and Advertising expenses from 2000 to 2021:
EC6Fq7j.jpg


Nintendo site where you can find useful information:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/

This thread is dedicated to Hiroshi Yamauchi and Hiroshi Imanishi.

0q9Cl8F.jpg
 
Last edited:

also

Banned
Thanks for the data. Had no idea that Lego City Undercover 3DS was a million seller. Too bad they don't report software sales for games under one million so we can't see how LCU did on Wii U.
 
3DS sw sales are basically back to GBA-level.

Tomodachi Life is now at around 2,85m. Also, the first Professor Layton sold 4,46m worldwide... Impressive.
 

FDC1

Member
Wiu U sales must be around 9-9.5M at the end of 2014 (7.29M at the end of September is the last official number)

3DS must be close of 50M now.
 

FDC1

Member
Based on NPDs and Media Create Data?

Simple prediction based on how the systems did the precedent years:

3DS Unit Sales (Unit: Million)

Code:
Hardware       Ap-Jn    Jl-Sp    Oc-Dc    Ja-Mr      FY      LTD

FY 2010/11       -        -        -      3.61      3.61     3.61

FY 2011/12     0.71     2.36      8.36    2.10      13.53    17.13       

FY 2012/13     1.86     3.20      7.65    1.24      13.95    31.09

FY 2013/14     1.40     2.49      7.76    0.59      12.24    43.33

FY 2014/15     0.82     1.27        -       -       2.09     45.42

Wii U Unit Sales (Unit: Million)

Code:
Hardware       Ap-Jn    Jl-Sp    Oc-Dc    Ja-Mr      FY      LTD

FY 2012/13       -        -      3.06     0.39      3.45     3.45

FY 2013/14     0.16     0.30     1.95      0.31     2.72     6.17

FY 2014/15     0.51     0.61        -       -       1.12     7.29
 

JoeM86

Member
Worth noting that as of December 6th, Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire had sold(shipped?) 7.7 million globally. That's in just over two weeks.
 
This is really interesting. I read somewhere that Goldeneye was the best selling N64 game, and always assumed that was true.

Also, the 3DS was only at 44 million hardware sales as of last March?! I thought it was much higher than that. So it's probably ~50 million sales by now?
 
Simple prediction based on how the systems did the precedent years:

3DS Unit Sales (Unit: Million)

Code:
Hardware       Ap-Jn    Jl-Sp    Oc-Dc    Ja-Mr      FY      LTD

FY 2010/11       -        -        -      3.61      3.61     3.61

FY 2011/12     0.71     2.36      8.36    2.10      13.53    17.13       

FY 2012/13     1.86     3.20      7.65    1.24      13.95    31.09

FY 2013/14     1.40     2.49      7.76    0.59      12.24    43.33

FY 2014/15     0.82     1.27        -       -       2.09     45.42

Wii U Unit Sales (Unit: Million)

Code:
Hardware       Ap-Jn    Jl-Sp    Oc-Dc    Ja-Mr      FY      LTD

FY 2012/13       -        -      3.06     0.39      3.45     3.45

FY 2013/14     0.16     0.30     1.95      0.31     2.72     6.17

FY 2014/15     0.51     0.61        -       -       1.12     7.29

3DS is never going to catch up to PSP, is it?

Had no idea Duck Hunt sold so much 0_0
 

PetrCobra

Member
F-Zero GX didn't even break a million in sales? No wonder they didn't make another one after that :-(

Edit: also, why is there a "2" by Super Mario Strikers?
 

Jigorath

Banned
3DS at only 44m three years after launch is pretty low. At this rate it won't touch PSP or GBA lifetime sales. Does not bode well for the future of gaming handhelds.

And WiiU numbers are horrid. 15m lifetime.
 

rambis

Banned
This may be old or obvious to those that follow this stuff but I was sure that DS out shipped the PS2. But it doesn't look quite so here.
 
WiiU won't reach Gamecube numbers.
Going from the Wii(best selling Nintendo home console) to the WiiU(worst selling Nintendo home console) is quite an interesting disaster.
 

Ridley327

Member
Wow, SNES software sold less than N64?
jBX8nGI.png

The US loved the N64 to dear bits.

So, we finally have confirmation that Metroid Prime is the best-selling entry in the series (and by a hair, really), and that there hasn't been an entry that's sold more than 3 million on their own.
 
Oh wow, Wii did beat DS software sales with their own games? Damn.

And even if Wii-series would not be counted, Wii did have great software sales.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Donkey Kong 64 5.27
Diddy Kong Racing 4.88

Why are there no sequels to these 2 games Nintendo? Unacceptable!

The rumor of a DK Racing 2 has been out there and Diddy didn't make it into Mario Kart 8, so...
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
at least playing it doesnt give you a headache.

I've played through the Virtual Boy game (VB Wario Land) in one sitting, no headache.

Too bad Yoshi's New Island is not among these and likely will never reach the million units sold. If Yoshi were to hit the million shipped, let's say in 2 years, would Nintendo still report that? As of now we have these confirmed sales:
France: 60k up to 21.05.2014 (interview date)
Japan: 240k up to 21.12.2014
USA: 287k up to 06.2014 (last known NPD total)

So, overall, 587k confirmed sales, missing six months of US sales, seven months of France sales and all the rest of the world besides Japan (where we have a complete picture of the sales).
 

Celine

Member
This may be old or obvious to those that follow this stuff but I was sure that DS out shipped the PS2. But it doesn't look quite so here.
I don't think DS will ever outship PS2 however DS outsold PS2 in pretty much every "big" market (USA, Japan, big european countries etc.)
 

Ridley327

Member
I'm always surprised how few hardware units the NES and SNES moved. They felt bigger than that.

It's easy to forget how much smaller gaming used to be. The Playstation really did bring in a much bigger audience for games, and despite the early success with Tetris, handheld gaming didn't really blossom into such a massive thing until Nintendo released Pokémon in 1998, which was nearly 10 years after the Game Boy released.

Also, holy crap, did the Game Boy have an insane lifespan.
 

dofry

That's "Dr." dofry to you.
Someone should forward this to Polygon. They can make all kinds of charts and graphs with this data.
 

JoeM86

Member
It's easy to forget how much smaller gaming used to be. The Playstation really did bring in a much bigger audience for games, and despite the early success with Tetris, handheld gaming didn't really blossom into such a massive thing until Nintendo released Pokémon in 1998, which was nearly 10 years after the Game Boy released.

Also, holy crap, did the Game Boy have an insane lifespan.

Indeed. Game Boy was on its way out before Pokémon, with people insisting it was dead and time to bring out its successor. Then Pokémon came and gave new life to the handheld, and it shot up from 60m at that time to 118m by the time of its demise. Pokémon really brought the Game Boy back to life.
 

CHC

Member
Anyone fretting over Wii U sales really needs to understand that these are not the latest numbers and that it's not even half way through its life. It's going to beat Virtual Boy, don't worry guys.
 

Celine

Member
Wow, SNES software sold less than N64?
No, Nintendo published million seller on SNES sold less than Nintendo published million seller on N64.
N64 was a disappointment for Nintendo but it is too often forgotten that Nintendo made good money out of it.
 
F-Zero GX didn't even break a million in sales? No wonder they didn't make another one after that :-(

Edit: also, why is there a "2" by Super Mario Strikers?

Looking at the list Super Mario Bros 2 is also a 2. I suppose it is 2 because they count 2 different games as one? Althought in the case of Mario Strikers I have no idea why to do this.
 

Celine

Member
Gunpei quit over how bad the VB sold, who's going to leave over the Wii U?
Gunpei quit for another reason.
But I suppose you aren't interested in it.

Looking at the list Super Mario Bros 2 is also a 2. I suppose it is 2 because they count 2 different games as one? Althought in the case of Mario Strikers I have no idea why to do this.
No, it's a mistake in the grouping but I'm not sure.
The main list is correct.
I'll need to check later.

Edit:
Mmmh, there is actually a mistake.
i will fix it later.

http://orfeovedovo.weebly.com/20th-century-italian-opera-catalogue.html
 

Jucksalbe

Banned
I'm surprised Pokémon on GB is even ahead of Tetris. I thought Tetris was the biggest seller on GB by a good margin.
 
No, it's a mistake in the grouping but I'm not sure.
The main list is correct.
I'll need to check later.

Edit:
Mmmh, there is actually a mistake.
i will fix it later.

Oh? Well, ummm, is Super Mario Bros 2's "2" also a mistake in listing?
 
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