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Nintendo software and hardware sales data from 1983 to present

Celine

Archivist
Archivist Genius
I'm going to keep this thread updated with new, more up to date info whenever is possible.

UPDATED WITH DATA UNTIL MARCH 2024


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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 Public Relationship department, Nintendo official site or other reports which reported Nintendo's shipment data.
The hardware and software data refer to the worldwide level, unless otherwise specified.

The hardware sales represent the console units Nintendo has sold to retailers as the term noted above.
The exception is the Virtual Boy for which the total shipment data is until March 1996 (the console was discontinued after that term).
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.

The software sales included in the software lists pertains:
- 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).
- 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.
- The software sales figures can be considered close to definitive or definitive with the exception of software for NSW which is still an active console.


There are cases in which Nintendo has the publishing duty only for certain markets therefore the sales data here presented cover only those markets.
When this happens it is specified within parenthesis.

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.

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):
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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.
NES software sales includes both format: cartridges and disks. In total 53.39 million game disks were sold-in for the Famicom.

* 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.

Software


TV consoles
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Handheld consoles
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Hybrid consoles
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Grand total:
As of March 2024 Nintendo has published more than 400 million sellers and has sold over 2.32 billion games.
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Annual bundled software sales and ratio:
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Annual hardware and software shipments:
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First-party software sales compared to total software sales per platform

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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.

Number of titles released at retails in America per system (digital-only games are excluded)
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Nintendo Revenue, Operating and Net Income from 1981 to 2024
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Nintendo Gross Profit Ratio, Operating Profit Ratio and Net Profit Ratio from 1981 to 2024
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Nintendo Digital Sales from 2006 to 2024
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Nintendo R&D and Advertising expenses from 2000 to 2024
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Other kind of videogame hardware

Dedicated LSI Game Console (essentially consoles whose game logic resides in the integrated circuits)
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Note: More than 70% units sold were Color TV Game 15 consoles.

Game & Watch
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Note: Nintendo sold 20 million Game & Watch devices as December 1982.

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Pokémon Mini total sell-in in Europe (in million of units):
Hardware: 0.15
Software (excluding bundled software): 0.11

Plug & Play Retro Console
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Note: Combined NES Classic and SNES Classic have shipped ~13.53 million units as March 2019 (NES Classic as March 2017: ~2.30M; SNES Classic as March 2018: 5.28M; NES Classic+SNES Classic in the fiscal year ending March 2019: 5.92M).
The sales figure above refer to the last time Nintendo gave specific update for the single console.

Total number of dedicated video game systems sold by manufacturer as June 2024 (only console makers which have sold at least 30 million units):

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A curiosity:
As March 1995 (PS1 was launched in December 1994 in Japan) NES + GB + SNES had sold in total 141.49 million units therefore since the introduction of the PlayStation brand of consoles Nintendo has sold around 100 million dedicated video game systems more than what Sony did in the same timeframe.

* Note:
I considered only standalone consoles with interchangeable software (devices like Color TV Game, Game & Watch, Nintendo plug & play retro consoles, PlayStation Classic, PocketStation and add-ons in general were excluded; also eduteintment systems like Sega Pico were excluded).

Companion thread about Nintendo's sales in Japan:

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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Some useful sources

Nintendo's investor relationship section:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/

Regional hardware shipment by fiscal year (big thanks to @Aquamarine):
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Virtual Boy hardware sales data source:
Virtual Boy sell-in LTD as March 1996 was taken from an article in Famitsu (issue 392 page 8) which indicated that the shipment split between Japan and abroad was respectively 140K and 630K.
Here a big scan of the article in question (Famitsu issue 392 page 8):
http://i.imgur.com/hXXa6DE.jpg

Non-consolidated software sales from the fiscal year ending March 1992 to the fiscal year ending March 1999:

Software sales units bundled with hardware for each fiscal year (total software sales exclude digital-only games):
FY20: 3.40M (total software sales: 168.72M)
FY21: 3.80M (total software sales: 230.88M)
FY22: 1.50M (total software sales: 235.07M)
FY23: 1.25M (total software sales: 213.96M)
FY24: 2.85M (total software sales: 199.67M)

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

Color TV Game 6/15 sales data source:
Online reprint of article "Famicom Development Story." in Nikkei Electronics issue May 9, 1994:
https://web.archive.org/web/2008100...keibp.co.jp/article/special/20080929/1019222/

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

Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver sales sources:
https://life.oricon.co.jp/news/72880/
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0006/05/index.html

Important notification about Pokémon Red / Green / Blue and Pokémon Gold / Silver sales:

For a long time Nintendo only gave the combined total sales for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver / Crystal of about 76 million units sold worldwide.
The figures for the single entries were presented as estimates therefore I recommended to use the combined sales figure if you need to cite official data for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Gold / Silver / Crystal.

Recently I've come across an article on Oricon which has official figures for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue and Pokémon Gold / Silver:

■ Reference / Number of new series shipped so far (Pokemon announcement)
"Pokemon Red and Green" Game Boy Released on February 27, 1996
Domestic: Over 8.2 million (Worldwide: 29.04 million)

"Pokemon Gold and Silver" Game Boy Game Boy Color Released on November 21, 1999
Domestic: Over 7.3 million units (Worldwide: 23.73 million units)

"Pokemon Ruby Sapphire" Game Boy Advance Released on November 21, 2002 Domestic: Over 5.4 million units (Worldwide: 16.21 million units)

"Pokemon Diamond and Pearl" Nintendo DS Released on September 28, 2006 Domestic: Over 5.8 million units (Worldwide: 17.15 million units)

* Cumulative worldwide sales of more than 130 million units (including remake version and version difference)
* All figures are as of the end of September 2009

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The worldwide figure given in the article consider Pokémon Red / Green for Japan and Pokémon Red / Blue for the overseas markets but miss the japanese sales of Pokémon Blue which are 2.01 million units.
Therefore Pokémon Red / Green / Blue has sold in total 31.05 million units.

See the below table with sell-in data as March 2000 provided by Nintendo for details:
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I've updated the data in OP for Pokémon Red / Green / Blue and Pokémon Gold / Silver.

For Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Crystal the figures in the Game Boy list should still be considered estimates and I advice to utilize the combined figure of about 76 million units if you need officially sourced sales figure for those two games.
 
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Interesting trivia:

- 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.
The Classic NES Series / Famicom Mini Series / NES Classics for GBA reached 7.57 million units world wide by March 2005.

- 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

- Game Boy hardware estimates sales based on shipments of the different revisions per single Country as March 2000:

First generation Game Boy
Rank Country Number of units Release date
1) USA 18.00 million units Aug. 1989
2) Japan 12.42 million units, April 1989
3) Germany 7.40 million units July 1990
4) United Kingdom 3.60 million units August 1990
5) France 3.50 million units Aug 1990

Game Boy Pocket
Rank Country Number of units Release date
1) Japan 9.04 million units Jul 1996 (include GB Light)
2) USA 5.50 million units Sep. 1996
3) Germany 2.90 million units Nov 1996
4) United Kingdom 0.80 million units Nov 1996
5) Australia: 0.4 million units, September 1996

Game Boy Color
Rank Country Number of units Release date
1) USA 10.40 million units Nov. 1998
2) Japan 6.68 million units Oct 1998
3) Germany 3.60 million units November 1998
4) United Kingdom 1.10 million units November 1998
5) Australia 0.50 million units November 1998

Game Boy sales ranking by body color as Septemner 1998

Game Boy (including Play It Loud! editions)
1) Gray
2) Green
3) Black
4) Red
5) Yellow
6) Skeleton
7) White

Game Boy Pocket edition
1) Green
2) Black
3) Red
4) Yellow
5) Gray
6) Pink
7) Clear Purple
8) Silver
9) Gold
Game Boy Light
1) Silver
2) Gold

Game Boy Color
1) Clear Purple
2) Clear
3) Blue
4) Purple
5) Yellow
6) Red

データが語る ゲームボイファミリーの人気っぷり

- Comparison between the million selling games Rare developed for Nintendo and the the million selling games Rareware developed for Nintendo for which Rare / Microsoft retained the IP ownership after the purchase:
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- Nintendo sold its product-tracking subsidiary SIRAS, which was founded in 1999 to track products in North America, during 2014 to InComm:

- Nintendo sold the majority of its stakes in the baseball team Seattle Mariners for $661 million in 2016:
 
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Posted in February 2021:
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E3 2005: Reggie jokes about all the figures being spelt by the rivals by stating that for Nintendo only one number had to be remembered: "2", as in 2 billions games (total software) sold on Nintendo consoles.
Reggie jokes about console specs for 360 -- offers another number: "2." As in "2 billion games sold by Nintendo." Says it's just the beginning. "Nintendo is not an 'or' company. Nintendo is an 'and' company." Talks about how Nintendo is about "change" -- and how more change is on the way. "We exist for the love the game." Reggie promises a new dimension of gameplay on DS.

December 2020: Nintendo published (first-party) million sellers' total sales surpass 2 billion games.

To give you an idea of the road traveled in the last 15 years, as December 2003 Nintendo published million sellers' total sales were 694 million units.

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Posted in February 2021:

Recently NSW surpassed the 3DS hardware sales launch aligned in Japan.
While 3DS total hardware sales are still quite higher than the current NSW install base the first-party software sales already looks notably stronger on NSW:

Nintendo (and TPC) million sellers total sales in Japan on 3DS: 37.95M
Nintendo (and TPC) million sellers total sales in Japan on NSW as December 2020 : 44.01M

Nintendo (and TPC) million sellers + other games that appeared on financial reports total sales in Japan on 3DS: 45.79M
Nintendo (and TPC) million sellers + other games that appeared on financial reports total sales in Japan on NSW as December 2020 : 52.77M

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Posted in May 2021:

Donkey Kong Country had sold nearly 7.5 million units by March 1995.
Nintendo total hardware sales exceeded 141 million units by March 1995, to be exact 141.49M.

Above I've writtten how Nintendo announced at E3 that they had achieved total software sales of 2 billion games in 2005.
During 1995 Nintendo achieved total software sales of 1 billion games.

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Posted in October 2021:

Nintendo sales data split by the broad platform usage category (as March 2021):

TV consoles total hardware sales: 280.87M
Handheld consoles total hardware sales: 430.16M
Tabletop consoles total hardware sales: 0.77M
Hybrid consoles total hardware sales: 84.59M

TV consoles total software sales: 2337.81M
Handheld consoles total software sales: 2213.75M
Tabletop consoles total software sales: ?
Hybrid consoles total software sales: 587.12M

TV consoles total first-party software* sales: 886.50M
Handheld consoles total first-party software* sales: 833.10M
Tabletop consoles total first-party software* sales: ?
Hybrid consoles total first-party software* sales: 300.33M


TV consoles: NES, SNES, N64, GC, Wii, WiiU
Handheld consoles: GB, GBA, DS, 3DS
Tabletop consoles: VB
Hybrid consoles: NSW

* 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.
 
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Total number of dedicated video game systems sold by manufacturer as December 2022 (only console makers which have sold at least 30 million units):
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A curiosity:
As March 1995 (PS1 was launched in December 1994 in Japan) NES + GB + SNES had sold in total 141.49 million units therefore since the introduction of the PlayStation brand of consoles Nintendo has sold around 100 million dedicated video game systems more than what Sony did in the same timeframe.

* Note:
I considered only standalone consoles with interchangeable software (devices like Color TV Game, Game & Watch, Nintendo plug & play retro consoles, PlayStation Classic, PocketStation and add-ons in general were excluded).
 
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One request Celine, if you can from now on when financial results are out make a post with how much sales increased quarter over quarter.
 
Ok, now I'm done.
I reworked the introductory segment to be more concise and moved the sources part in the post below.
I've added a few trivia data and infos in the subsequent posts.
 
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Wonderful to see this thread again, it’s genuinely one of the most useful tools for discussing Nintendo data out there.
 
Amazing. Nintendo probably has 40-50 million potential sales to make with Switch. A performance like that could give the successor the chance of going for the 1 billion milestone.
 
That's amazing Celine, thanks! (Bookmarked of course)

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but do anybody know when CESA White Paper will be released?
 
I never posted on the other site and wanted to finally say, thank you a ton for this resource, it’s very appreciated and I respect the work you’ve done over the years to maintain and add to it . It’s by far has always been my favorite and one of the more useful sales related resources around.
 
Let’s goooo! So happy to know that you’ll be updating this here! Thank you for all the hard work Celine!
 
So happy to see this thread back. It's arguably the best resource for Nintendo sales data on the internet. Thanks for the hard work, Celine.
 
Thanks for all of this and the hard work you obviously must put into it all. I believe we should be getting updates on 11/04 when Nintendo announces their Q2 2021 financial results.
 
Great to see this thread here.

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but do anybody know when CESA White Paper will be released?
I believe the delay was announced in January, and there seems to have been zero updates since then.

 
It's amazing we have access to so much sales data for Nintendo games. Thank you for compiling and continually updating it all!
 
This forum wasn't truly complete without this amazing resource. Thank you Celine.
 
The best database for Nintendo sales. Thanks to post it here too.
 
Amazing work as always Celine. This is one of the most legendary sales threads on the internet imo.
 
Thank you so much for this thread, man. There’s so much valuable information here, it’s insane. All in one place, too. I love this forum already.
 
Reposting here in this epic thread. Nintendo directly sent me this shipment data back in 2013:

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Reposting here in this epic thread. Nintendo directly sent me this shipment data back in 2013:


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What happened to the SNES in the US during April 1994 - March 1995? That would have been the release of Final Fantasy III, Super Metroid, Super SF 2, Mortal Kombat II, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Return of the Jedi and yet sales just plummeted during that software onslaught? Wasn't this the year the SNES retook the lead for good from Genesis?
 
What happened to the SNES in the US during April 1994 - March 1995? That would have been the release of Final Fantasy III, Super Metroid, Super SF 2, Mortal Kombat II, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Return of the Jedi and yet sales just plummeted during that software onslaught? Wasn't this the year the SNES retook the lead for good from Genesis?
In that fiscal year Nintendo reorganized their inventory management to be more efficient.

"And at the same time, we continued to improve our internal operations. Over the last year we have cut our inventory in half, and become more cost efficent in everything we do, as we confront with the unpredicability of currency markets... and the assurance of growing competition." - Hiroshi Yamauchi, presidential message discussing the FY ending March 1995
 
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ooooh we're back, babyyyy!

thanks for reviving this incredibly useful thread, Celine!
 
The three pillars upon which is based Nintendo's long term success are:

1) "Dokusou" also known as the will to strive for uniqueness. The challenge for the company is to continually surprise and delight the consumers instead of competing with other companies by offering similar products.

2) Unique hardware and software integration which mean the software can be distinguished through special hardware features and vice versa the hardware adoption can be driven by in-house software custom built around the hardware specifications and principles.

3) Run the business as efficient as possible, be profitable (the higher than norm profit margins depend on "dokusou") and financially self-sustaining.

Point 1 is enabled by point 2 and 3 because when you strive to offer unique products, by the nature of being unprecedented, you cannot gauge with good certainity if they will be met with success. That is "dokusou" inherently carries risks.
The consequence is that to carry those potential risks the Company needs to have the cash to remain unflinching if one products goes wrong or even better to keep investing in unique products even after one has gone wrong*.
The other aspect is that you cannot expect outside partners to heavily invests in unprecedented products before they've proved their worth on the market therefore it is essential that the Company is capable to drive the adoption all by itself.


* Obviously Nintendo do not blindly throw everything at the wall and then look what stick.
The right vision and a deep understanding of the business (what entertain humanity and why) are requirements to pull off "dokusou" successfully.
 
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#2 is why the Nintendo on PC dream will likely never happen.
Never say never. Controllers and interfaces can still be sold for PC with unique integration and being an open platform Nintendo could still even maintain their own storefront. There's many ways their unique model could be adapted to the platform. At one point Nintendo was never going to do mobile games too but they took an adjusted approach and made it happen anyway.

Now, I don't see Nintendo jumping into PC anytime soon but that's more because they really have no need to (unlike mobile which investors were constantly hounding them over) and not because their approach to development couldn't work with the platform.
 
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