Best-Selling Game Consoles Return From the Dead

More than 30 years after its initial release, the Sega Genesis is making a comeback later this year. Following in the footsteps of Nintendo and Sony, Sega announced a miniature classic edition of its most successful console last week.

Like the NES and SNES Classic as well as the PlayStation Classic before it, the Genesis Mini, slated for a September release, is a miniature version of the original system and comes with a selection of popular games pre-installed. Honoring its iconic slogan “Genesis does what Nintendon’t”, Sega addressed two of the main criticisms of Nintendo’s classic consoles by pre-installing 40 games instead of 21 (SNES Classic) and 30 (NES Classic) and including a USB power adapter in the box, making the console truly plug-and-play.

As our chart, based on company numbers and estimates by industry website VGChartz, shows, the Sega Genesis, also known as the Mega Drive outside of North America, is the 12th best-selling home console of all time with 30 million units shipped. While the rekindling of old classics certainly worked for Nintendo, it remains to be seen how far the industry can ride the nostalgia wave. Sony’s PlayStation Classic appears to have gotten less attention than Nintendo’s re-releases already and Sega might be arriving a little late to the party.