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Talk:List of best-selling game consoles

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Update PS5 sales

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Can someone with editing rights update the PS5 total to 74.9 million?

This is being quoted from Sony's own official data, see: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-sold-749-million-playstation-5s-130021792.html

First paragraph there has a link to a PDF on Sony's website. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7C:9249:3B00:39BC:AFC6:F775:7BD9 (talk) 20:13, 13 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Include note for consoles with backward compatibility

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Should an indicator for console backward compatibility be added into the table? For example, indicate that the PlayStation 5 is backward compatible with the PlayStation 4, or Nintendo 3DS is backward compatible with the Nintendo DS. The rationale is that these newer consoles cannibalise sales of the old console, but continue to contribute to sales of software for the old console; e.g. a lot of PS4 games continue to be purchased by PS5 owners. TenthAvenueFreezeOut (talk) 08:03, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No, this has nothing to do with sales, it shouldn't be documented here. Sergecross73 msg me 11:39, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure that one can say it has nothing to do with sales, as backwards compatibility means a console has a larger game library right from the start and can contribute to new console sales by people sticking with that ecosystem. Also customers know they can continue the use their existing games.
That said, that's a level of analysis that is outside the scope of this article, which is just a list and not supposed to have much analysis at all. The lead briefly defines the categories because the chart includes that, and some figures need explanatory footnotes, but analysis of the "why" a console sold well or not is not the purpose of this list. If anyone wants to know features of a console and an analysis of its market outcomes, all they have to do is click the link to that console's article. oknazevad (talk) 15:01, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Of course it can affect sales, but what I'm saying that it falls outside of the scope of this article. We shouldn't cover it in the same way we shouldn't cover launch price or size dimensions - yes, they all affect sales, but they have nothing to do with documenting the subject of "best-selling". We've got individual console articles that can (and do) document this. Sergecross73 msg me 15:09, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Lead Concerns

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Why does the article's lead focus on the history of gaming consoles as a whole? I get that additional context should be added to readers unfamiliar with them, but I'd expect more commentary on the best-selling consoles themselves, like a brief history on their evolution sales-wise. As in, how the PS2 is the current best-selling one, the Atari 2600 being the best-selling console of its generation, the NES holding the record until the PlayStation, and how the PS1 became the first to reach 100 million, etc. If I offered an official suggestion, I'd surmise something like this:

  • P1: The best-selling home console and handheld console
  • P2: Brief explanations on handheld, home and dedicated consoles (akin to lead currently)
  • P3: History of best-selling home consoles + best-selling handhelds
  • P4: Historical milestones (first to reach 10 million, 20 million, 50, 100, etc.)
  • P5: Best-selling per generation(?)

I'd edit this directly, but I'd prefer to gain some consensus and also allow editors to find sources for these if possible. Thanks, PantheonRadiance (talk) 22:30, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the concerns. I was reviewing it once in recent memory, and was going to tweak it. But the more I read, the more I wanted to rework almost all of it, and I wasnt ready to do a complete rewrite, so I didn't end up messing with it. Sergecross73 msg me 23:07, 24 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Fair enough, I think it would be good to refrain from changing it until a solid layout is found that works. Admittedly I'm trying to find extra sources from a historical standpoint (akin to highest-grossing films), but besides this, I've come up a bit short. PantheonRadiance (talk) 23:15, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Therein lay the rub, that to add material analyzing the figures, we need sources analyzing the figures or we run into a WP:SYNTH issue. I'm sure such sources could be found; any industry as large as video games is going to have discussion about sales and other financial metrics even from non-specialist sources. But we need to find them first and report what they say. oknazevad (talk) 23:58, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, definitely. I'll try to find more sources within the next week or so and compile them here. If anyone else is interested, feel free to find more too. PantheonRadiance (talk) 06:00, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Giving my tuppence; I like p1, p2 & p3, I am not keen on arbitrary milestones, or the best selling generation. I feel that is too basic and lacking the nuance that occurred when Atari appeared which was a cultural shift and everyone played games then, pub culture added to it as did arcade culture, then games became for children mostly and then games swung back to include adults moving into the noughties. So the possible market (in relation to £ to other entertainments) shrank as more units were shifted, plus the world population has more than doubled since Atari got here and now here are markets worldwide. Halbared (talk) 08:30, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Bring PlayStation 2 sales back to 155 million

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On November 26, 2024, Sony announced that total sales of the PlayStation 2 had reached 160 million units.( https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/playstation-history/2000-ps2-psp/ )As of March 31, 2012, sales were 155 million units, which means that 5 million PlayStation 2 units were sold in fiscal 2012. However, that's not possible, because PlayStation 2 sold 4.1 million units in fiscal year 2011, ( https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/11q4_sonypre.pdf ) but 5 million units in fiscal year 2012, exceeding the previous year. And this site (https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/) states that as of March 31, 2012, the figure was 160 million units. There is other conclusive evidence that it is not 160 million.

240D:F:2074:4B00:FC0F:5C4B:437A:C7BD (talk) 06:52, 13 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The plot thickens... Halbared (talk) 09:41, 13 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
True kind of like how Nintendo life and Nintendo in general have the release date of the Super Nintendo as August 19, 1991. Yet on here it's still August 23, 1991 , I guess some editors like to pick and choose which sources stay and which ones go. The whole thing is confusing though.  2601:3C5:8180:31D0:2D9E:3981:126D:2327 (talk) 02:32, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
What does that have to do anything? What would there be to gain by altering a release date by four days? Sergecross73 msg me 02:37, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Because dates and sales should be accurate on Wikipedia... 2601:3C5:8180:31D0:2D9E:3981:126D:2327 (talk) 09:18, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I was looking at this page (http://xn--engadget-433ghh7eov.com/2012-12-28-playstation-2-discontinued-in-japan.html) and I thought, it says that PS2 sales are declining, right? Since it was 4.1 million units in 2011, doesn't that mean that it's less than 4 million units in 2012? If so, it should be 159 million units. 240D:F:2074:4B00:E92D:1DA8:989F:340A (talk) 05:14, 26 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]