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SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive hardware sales comparison

Celine

Celine

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Archivist Genius
Recently there was demand from people asking which console sold more in U.S. between SNES and Sega Genesis.

NPD Group sell-through estimates put the SNES ahead by about 1.5 million units.
SNES: 20.0M
Sega Genesis: 18.5M

Source

It has to be said that sell-through estimates for old consoles aren't as accurate as today.
Thankfully we are fortunate enough to also know the consoles sell-in for each fiscal year as reported by Nintendo and Sega, though in general it was split for macro regions (Japan/America/Others or Japan/Outside Japan) therefore the specific shipments for the U.S. market aren't known.

Total sales (sell-in) Worldwide:
SNES: 49.10M
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive: 30.75M

Comparison between SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive consoles sell-in for each fiscal year during their more active period as reported by the respective console manufacturer:

Worldwide
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Outside Japan
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Japan
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So the general outlook of the 16-bit generation was that SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive were pretty close in western markets (depending on the specific market market one was on top of the other) while SNES (Super Famicom) was the dominant force in Japan, with PC Engine netting a distant second place there but locking down the nascent CD rom gaming market (with an install base of roughly 2 million CD players in the Country).
 
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Both of these systems had surprisingly good tails heading into the next gen launch, Genesis in Japan aside. Just shows what some great high profile releases can do for a system (DKC for SNES, Mortal Kombat for Genesis, though there are more). 95-96 SNES seems especially good.
 
Worth also noting that Nintendo kept shipping SNES/SFC units through 2001 managing a total of 17.18 in Japan and 32.06m outside Japan . I'm not entirely sure but I believe Sega stopped MD/Gen shipments after 1996 (along with GG, MCD, etc as a corporate refocusing on Saturn) but they continued sublicensing the platform for manufacture overseas by TecToy, Majesco and possibly others.
 
History repeats itself. NSW/PS4 are like the modern day SFC/MD.
 
It's hard to explain just how big a deal DKC was. It legitimately looked better than some early PS1 and Saturn games and fooled people into thinking SNES was capable of hanging around.
 
WestEgg said:
Both of these systems had surprisingly good tails heading into the next gen launch, Genesis in Japan aside. Just shows what some great high profile releases can do for a system (DKC for SNES, Mortal Kombat for Genesis, though there are more). 95-96 SNES seems especially good.
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Chrono Trigger too. It sold 2m+ in Japan.
 
It was impressive what Tom Kalinske and his team at Sega of America managed to do. The japaneses had their merits for making good software, but the way Sega of America agressively and creatively conducted the bussiness was top notch. They broke a virtual monopoly of Nintendo and became market leader for a few years.
 
fiendcode said:
Worth also noting that Nintendo kept shipping SNES/SFC units through 2001 managing a total of 17.18 in Japan and 32.06m outside Japan . I'm not entirely sure but I believe Sega stopped MD/Gen shipments after 1996 (along with GG, MCD, etc as a corporate refocusing on Saturn) but they continued sublicensing the platform for manufacture overseas by TecToy, Majesco and possibly others.
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MD/Gen had shipped 28.54M units in total by March 1996.
The final MD/Gen cumulative shipment by Sega stood at 30.75M units.
After March 1996 Sega stopped shipping MD consoles in Japan but continued for abroad markets.
 
This trend of SEGA being far more popular in the west compared to Japan, even relatively speaking, continues today with some brands like Sonic being non-existent in Japan.

On the other hand, SEGA brands that aren't heavily associated with Mega Drive nostalgia tend to perform significantly better in Japan, with IPs like Yakuza or Phantasy Star Online. Not to count the numerous mobile games. I find that interesting.
 
Man God said:
It's hard to explain just how big a deal DKC was. It legitimately looked better than some early PS1 and Saturn games and fooled people into thinking SNES was capable of hanging around.
Click to expand...

When the Stamper brothers first showed off the game, there were people at Nintendo that didn't believe it was an SNES game!
 
Man God said:
It's hard to explain just how big a deal DKC was. It legitimately looked better than some early PS1 and Saturn games and fooled people into thinking SNES was capable of hanging around.
Click to expand...
This. DKC still looks pretty good on CRTs to this day IMO.
 
I'm curious, did Sega ever release numbers for stuff like the Tectoy versions of their consoles? I can't imagine that making a huge difference, but the nerd inside me is curious about how those compare to the really late 2000s era Super Famicom sales. Granted, if Sega didn't even manufacture them, I guess we'd have to see if Tectoy and others have them somewhere.
 
Theorymon said:
I'm curious, did Sega ever release numbers for stuff like the Tectoy versions of their consoles? I can't imagine that making a huge difference, but the nerd inside me is curious about how those compare to the really late 2000s era Super Famicom sales. Granted, if Sega didn't even manufacture them, I guess we'd have to see if Tectoy and others have them somewhere.
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In 2015 the chairman of Tectoy said that more than 5 million Master System and more than 3 million Mega Drive/Genesis were sold by the company.

Interview: Stefano Arnhold (Tec Toy) – Sega-16

www.sega-16.com www.sega-16.com
 
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