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Nintendo Historical Shipment Data (1983 - Present)

Thraktor

Member
Here's the breakdown between home consoles and handhelds:

ninhwsales_ww_hchh.png


...and the same, expressed as percentages:

ninhwsales_ww_hchh_pc.png
 

javac

Member
Amazing stuff! You should watermark the images...unless you don't mind! You should forever be associated with this data! Putting the people who should be providing us with this kind of data to shame! :)
 

Tokklyym

Neo Member
Others have said it, but that Pokémon bump for the GB is astounding. Who would imagine a system having its best year in its tenth year?

Those DS numbers are amazing too. I understand why Nintendo worries about the erosion of the handheld market. I suspect we'll never see numbers like that again.
 

Thraktor

Member
Sales broken down by region:

ninhwsales_regional.png


...and as percentages:

ninhwsales_regional_pc.png


Others have said it, but that Pokémon bump for the GB is astounding. Who would imagine a system having its best year in its tenth year?

Those DS numbers are amazing too. I understand why Nintendo worries about the erosion of the handheld market. I suspect we'll never see numbers like that again.

Their Gameboy numbers also include the Gameboy Color, which released in 1998 and probably accounts for a good chunk of that bump.
 
Very interesting stats. Thanks.

If I wasn't so lazy, I'd create a site based on user contributions where people could enter historical game-related sales stats into a database. Visitors could then query this data and generate graphs and such. That'd be cool. I guess there's ********, but it doesn't really have sales over time... at least not in the non-pro version.
 
They generally play the same games. There were far too few GBA-exclusive or DSi-exclusive games to really call each one its own platform distinct from the previous one. As far as I'm concerned the Game Boy's first true hardware revision was the GBA.
Uh, what? For the GBC, there are hundreds of games that play only on the GBC and will not work on an original GB. Why would you ignore that?

And for the DSi, every single game in the DSiWare shop is DSi-exclusive! That's a lot of titles. Quite sizable library that you cannot play on any DS.

So no, the idea that the GBC, or DSi, aren't their own systems is ridiculous. They are smaller upgrades than the GBC or 3DS are, for sure, but they are not the same thing as the original system. If you could get some addon for the original system that would let you play the new games I'd be willing to consider them part of its library (as with how you could get a Super System Card to play Super CD games on a regular Turbo CD, instead of having to get a Duo for them), but you can't, the two are entirely separate.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Awesome data Aquamarine and thanks for the graphs Thraktor.

Like someone said before, I was surprised as the small drop in sales from SNES to N64 in the US. In Japan and Europe there was a monstrous drop in comparison... Interesting to say the least. I also find it interesting that the 3DS is performing fairly similarly in Europe (well really Europe+Australia, etc.) and the US hardware wise at least, which is surprising considering the software numbers seem to be much lower in Europe.
 

Josh7289

Member
Thanks for the data, Aquamarine! It's fascinating stuff.

For those who are interested here's a graph summarising the data:

http://www.conductunbecoming.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ninhwsales_ww.png

I'll try to get some more specific graphs up shortly.

Also, fun fact from the data: Nintendo has shipped a grand total of 657,590,000 consoles as of March this year. They passed the half a billion mark sometime in FY '09.

Wow, we aren't kidding when we say the GBA sustained Nintendo through the GameCube era.

Fabulous graphs by the way.
 

Road

Member
This is great! Thanks a lot.

I only had a few loose data for NES in Japan and GBOY worldwide, but this breakdown by region is amazing!

Can you convince Sony to breakdown PS3 and Vita sales too? =P
 

Sulik2

Member
32 Million DS units in Japan is a staggering number. That is an incredible amount of systems for a country of roughly 127 million people. The DS Lite sales jump was incredible.

On a more somber note, seeing the massive drop form the Wii/DS to WiiU/3DS worldwide sales trends should scare every Nintendo investor.

I would love to hear Michael Pachter's impressions of these numbers.
 

Mory Dunz

Member
So? The Game Boy+GBC, N64, Gamecube, GBA, and Wii all did better in Europe than Japan too. Europe is a much larger market, population-wise, than Japan is...

Yeah, I had had the notion that the Wii U was bombing bombing in Europe for some reason. Like, compared to other regions. Dispite population.
 
Sales broken down by region:
.

Since you already have the figures in a spread sheet. Can you do a line graph with sales on y, months since release on x and the device as a measure?

So all devices would start at the same point and it would show how they tracked over their lifetime compared to each other.

Cheers brosef
 

NolbertoS

Member
Wow great data, Its funny how handhelds have literally kept Nintendo afloat and more, compared to thr console business in general lately
 
Yeah, I had had the notion that the Wii U was bombing bombing in Europe for some reason. Like, compared to other regions. Dispite population.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal year, sales to retailers in Europe were proportionally lower than the other two primary regions:

Q1 2014 (Apr - Jun) sales:

Wii U (Japan) - 90,000
Wii U (Americas) - 60,000
Wii U (Other) - 10,000

I think that's where you got that notion from. From launch until March 31st, Europe sales have been relatively in line with the other regions.
 

Josh7289

Member
Yeah, I had had the notion that the Wii U was bombing bombing in Europe for some reason. Like, compared to other regions. Dispite population.

It is bombing in Europe: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=639998

10,000 units sold in Europe, Australia, etc., in Q2 2013. The data so far in this thread does not cover FY 2014, which began with Q2 of calendar year 2013 (the data in the thread I linked).

EDIT: Beaten by Aquamarine two posts above me!
 

RM8

Member
It's so amazing that a 10 years old (very successful) system had yet to see its best year. Game Boy represents everything Nintendo is great at, I consider it to be one of the absolute best gaming platforms ever. DS was pretty much a repeat of that.
 

CTLance

Member
Thanks, Nintendo,
Thanks, Aquamarine,
Thanks, Thraktor.

Amazing! What a haul!
Someone shop sales data & Aquamarines Avatar on a link_opening_chest.gif.
 
Where's the Virtual Boy?

I'd be interested to see this as well. As Nintendo's only real failed piece of hardware it would be interesting to see how the data compares to the Wii U. The Wii U's first year is certainly pretty damning when compared to most of the other launch years, and I imagine most of those numbers are in and around launch day so the trend line is probably even worse than that.

Anyone know if Nintendo's seen an uptick in Wii U sales since Wind Waker? If we don't see some significant positive momentum going into the holidays (and after 3D World) then I think we're all safe in calling it done.


Internally, the Virtual Boy was a failure that Nintendo doesn't like to recognize. As a result, they didn't give me any information it.

However, I do have some data on the console.

That "770,000 shipments" figure you often see thrown around is wildly inaccurate. It's another example of that esoteric, vague data I was talking about.

I have some figures that I believe are much more accurate to the truth. However, these didn't come directly from Nintendo Co. Ltd.,'s internal archives, so I can't guarantee their accuracy.

VIRTUAL BOY

Lifetime worldwide shipments: 1.26 million

Shipments (Japan) - 0.63 million
Shipments (The Americas) - 0.56 million
Shipments (Other) - 0.07 million

Here is the sell-through information I have on Virtual Boy:

Japanese Sales, Lifetime: 630,000
USA Sales, Lifetime: 496,000

I can vouch that the 496K is the actual number NPD has in its archives for Virtual Boy LTD sales.
 

Road

Member
Since you already have the figures in a spread sheet. Can you do a line graph with sales on y, months since release on x and the device as a measure?

So all devices would start at the same point and it would show how they tracked over their lifetime compared to each other.

Cheers brosef

nintendo_shipments_alllkpz.png


nintendo_shipments_hoejjrp.png


nintendo_shipments_potvkzb.png


Quick based on the fiscal year data. Considers the first launch region as release date.

Someone could do one with the quarterly information available too.
 
Wait, Nintendo shipped 10,000 NESs between April 1996 and March 1997 in the US? What was going on then?

Nintendo sold 52,000 NES systems to consumers in the USA in 1996.

I presume a small shipment of 10,000 units was to briefly satiate the demand before the console completely dropped off the charts (it only sold 8,000 units in 1997).
 
Oh my lord at them 1999 to 2001 GB numbers. That must be like all Pokemon.

Interesting to note than in Japan, the GBA only sold 16 million.

GB-32 mil GBA 16mil DS 32 mil 3DS-???

Wonder how well their next one will do mobile being a contender and all lawl.
 
J

Jotamide

Unconfirmed Member
3DS the platform with most consistent numbers across all territories?
 
Hundreds? I always thought it was like a dozen or two. Hmm, let's see.

Wikipedia has 148 games listed as not backward compatible, plus a lot of question marks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_Boy_Color_games
There's more than 148 for sure -- a lot of those ? mark games are definitely color only. Some are dual-mode (backwards compatible), but a lot aren't. Many games from 1998-1999 have backwards compatibility, but most titles from 2000 on don't (a few do, but not most). If you want to know for sure though, the back of the box will tell you -- color only games have just the GBC logo in the upper right on the back of the box, while dual-mode games will also have a GB logo. Many color only games also have an "Only For" label on the front, for US releases, but most color-only games released after the GBA don't have that, since they work in a GBA too, so you do need the back of the box to be sure. Japanese GBC boxes tell you on the front -- they say "Game Boy" in a label in the lower left if they're backwards compatible, or "Color" if they are not.

So yeah, someone with the time to go through all the boxes could clear up that Wikipedia list without having to play all the games. Lots of Wikipedia gaming lists are like that, half-complete lists that are interesting but far from authoritative...

Anyway, why would you ignore that? Nintendo logic, I guess.
Must be. :(

Oh my lord at them 1999 to 2001 GB numbers. That must be like all Pokemon.
They're Game Boy Color, not just Poekmon. Sure Pokemon was massively popular, but not EVERYONE with a GBC got any Pokemon games... I didn't for example, and got a GBC in December '98.
 

Cipherr

Member
Oh my lord at them 1999 to 2001 GB numbers. That must be like all Pokemon.

Interesting to note than in Japan, the GBA only sold 16 million.

GB-32 mil GBA 16mil DS 32 mil 3DS-???

Wonder how well their next one will do mobile being a contender and all lawl.

Whelp, 3DS is at 13.2 million already, will likely end the year over 14 million maybe 15. I think it will do just fine, and Mobile is already a contender here and today.
 

mantidor

Member
I didn't realize the SNES sold so...poorly. It's the golden age of gaming! :mad:

Rose tinted glasses etc, etc,

Now there's a thread to point out to all those people that demand Nintendo to go back to pre-GC era, really? what company in it's right mind would do that?
 
There's more than 148 for sure -- a lot of those ? mark games are definitely color only. Some are dual-mode (backwards compatible), but a lot aren't. Many games from 1998-1999 have backwards compatibility, but most titles from 2000 on don't (a few do, but not most). If you want to know for sure though, the back of the box will tell you -- color only games have just the GBC logo in the upper right on the back of the box, while dual-mode games will also have a GB logo. Many color only games also have an "Only For" label on the front, for US releases, but most color-only games released after the GBA don't have that, since they work in a GBA too, so you do need the back of the box to be sure. Japanese GBC boxes tell you on the front -- they say "Game Boy" in a label in the lower left if they're backwards compatible, or "Color" if they are not.

So yeah, someone with the time to go through all the boxes could clear up that Wikipedia list without having to play all the games. Lots of Wikipedia gaming lists are like that, half-complete lists that are interesting but far from authoritative...


Must be. :(

Wikipedia doesn't just have issues with gaming lists. When you get data that's highly specialized, the editors allow questionable / vague sources to be taken as fact.

Here's the Virtual Boy article on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_boy

Note the "Units sold: 770,000" false statistic.

If you trace that figure to its source:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070508.../gamepro/domestic/games/features/111823.shtml

...you get an ancient, vague, self-referential comment that cites no hard sources. Basically, the logic behind the statistic is "Virtual Boy sold 770,000 units because Virtual Boy sold 770,000 units." However, because Wikipedia's editors aren't specialized enough to notice this inconsistency, the incorrect 770,000 figure proliferates because many people take sourced Wikipedia figures as facts.
 
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