Sony & Nintendo Dominate Console Leaderboard

30 years ago, on September 9, 1995, the original PlayStation made its debut in North America, ringing in an era of gaming success for Sony. When Sony released the PlayStation, the console market was dominated by Sega and Nintendo, the latter coming off the huge success of the Super Nintendo and preparing to launch the Nintendo 64, which arrived a year later.

At launch, the PlayStation competed with Sega’s Saturn, which had been rushed to market a couple of months earlier and the aging Super Nintendo. By undercutting the Saturn’s price by $100 and beating the Nintendo 64 to the market, Sony quickly seized market share and had established the PlayStation as the next-generation market leader by the time the Nintendo 64 arrived. Sony’s first console went on to sell 100 million units worldwide, permanently changing the balance of power in the video game market.

As our chart shows, the original PlayStation is the fourth best-selling home console of all time, beaten only by the PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch and its own successor, the PlayStation 2, which sold 160 million units over its lifetime. Following the arrival of the Switch 2, it remains to be seen how long Nintendo will keep the original Switch around and whether it will continue to sell well enough to eventually take the crown from Sony’s PlayStation 2.