Celine
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I'm going to keep this thread updated with new, more up to date info whenever is possible.
UPDATED WITH DATA UNTIL DECEMBER 2021
任天堂
What does the following data represent?
The data here presented is either financial data or shipment data provided by Nintendo itself directly from Nintendo's Public Relationship department, Nintendo official site or other reports which reported Nintendo's shipment data.
The hardware and software data refer to sales in Japan.
The hardware sales represent the console units Nintendo has sold to retailers as the term noted above.
The hardware revisions sales are contained within the main console brand thus, for example, GBC hardware sales are included in the GB hardware sales, DSi hardware sales are included in the DS hardware sales and so on.
I've used the international acronyms for Famicon and Super Famicom even though this thread is focused on Japan cause it's thought for an international audience.
Please take note that the best fitting acronyms would have been FC and SFC.
The software sales included in the software lists pertains:
- Games published by Nintendo or Pokemon Co. (due to the special relationship between Nintendo and Pokemon Co., the latter only publish console games on Nintendo consoles).
- Only original game releases are considered (for instance the sales from re-releases on Virtual Console or retro mini consoles aren't include).
- Include software units bundled with the hardware.
- Digital sales are included only for the games that had a digital version available at the time (basically since WiiU/3DS).
- Digital only games are excluded.
- For the games that have sold more than 1 million units in Japan the software lists are fairly comprehensive and should be considered close to definitive, with the exception of million sellers on consoles still active (for those refer to the date of the update).
- The list of games with sales below 1 million units are NOT comprehensive of all the Nintendo published games that have sold less than 1 million in Japan.
- The Famicom games (NES) combine both the cartridge version and the disk versions when available.
Read second post for some sources.
Also in the below posts there are other interesting trivia and data.
Hardware
Videogame Console with interchangeable software** (in million of units):
Note: Virtual Boy total shipment is until March 1996.
* What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.
It's meant to indicate a minimum for the first-party software sales.
** 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.
Software
TV consoles
Handheld consoles
Hybrid consoles
Grand total:
As of December 2021 Nintendo has sold more than 388 million games in Japan.
Summary about Nintendo million selling games in Japan (data for the million sellers is fairly complete):
Annual hardware and software shipments in Japan:
First-party software sales compared to total software sales per platform
What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.
Companion thread about Nintendo's sales Worldwide:
www.installbaseforum.com
Nintendo website where you can find useful information:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/
This thread is dedicated to Hiroshi Yamauchi.
UPDATED WITH DATA UNTIL DECEMBER 2021

任天堂
What does the following data represent?
The data here presented is either financial data or shipment data provided by Nintendo itself directly from Nintendo's Public Relationship department, Nintendo official site or other reports which reported Nintendo's shipment data.
The hardware and software data refer to sales in Japan.
The hardware sales represent the console units Nintendo has sold to retailers as the term noted above.
The hardware revisions sales are contained within the main console brand thus, for example, GBC hardware sales are included in the GB hardware sales, DSi hardware sales are included in the DS hardware sales and so on.
I've used the international acronyms for Famicon and Super Famicom even though this thread is focused on Japan cause it's thought for an international audience.
Please take note that the best fitting acronyms would have been FC and SFC.
The software sales included in the software lists pertains:
- Games published by Nintendo or Pokemon Co. (due to the special relationship between Nintendo and Pokemon Co., the latter only publish console games on Nintendo consoles).
- Only original game releases are considered (for instance the sales from re-releases on Virtual Console or retro mini consoles aren't include).
- Include software units bundled with the hardware.
- Digital sales are included only for the games that had a digital version available at the time (basically since WiiU/3DS).
- Digital only games are excluded.
- For the games that have sold more than 1 million units in Japan the software lists are fairly comprehensive and should be considered close to definitive, with the exception of million sellers on consoles still active (for those refer to the date of the update).
- The list of games with sales below 1 million units are NOT comprehensive of all the Nintendo published games that have sold less than 1 million in Japan.
- The Famicom games (NES) combine both the cartridge version and the disk versions when available.
Read second post for some sources.
Also in the below posts there are other interesting trivia and data.
Hardware
Videogame Console with interchangeable software** (in million of units):

Note: Virtual Boy total shipment is until March 1996.
* What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.
It's meant to indicate a minimum for the first-party software sales.
** 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.
Software
TV consoles






Handheld consoles




Hybrid consoles

Grand total:
As of December 2021 Nintendo has sold more than 388 million games in Japan.

Summary about Nintendo million selling games in Japan (data for the million sellers is fairly complete):

Annual hardware and software shipments in Japan:


First-party software sales compared to total software sales per platform

What is referred as "First-party software" is actually an approximation calculated by summing every games for which sell-in data is known therefore it's incomplete.
Companion thread about Nintendo's sales Worldwide:

Nintendo software and hardware sales data from 1983 to present
I'm going to keep this thread updated with new, more up to date info whenever is possible. UPDATED WITH DATA UNTIL DECEMBER 2021 独創 What does the following data represent? The data here presented is either financial data or shipment data provided by Nintendo itself directly from Nintendo's...

Nintendo website where you can find useful information:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/
This thread is dedicated to Hiroshi Yamauchi.

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