PS5 Outsells SNES

Sony's latest video game console, the PlayStation 5,which is part of the ninth generation of video game consoles, has outsold the lifetime sales of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), according to VGChartz estimates.

The PS5 had sold an estimated 52.96 million units worldwide through December 2023, while the SNES sold 49.10 million units lifetime.

[Eonjay]

Not bad should pass Xbox One soon.

[Cacabunga]

I really thought SNES sold much more than that.. i feel like everybody had one

[DefenderOfDoom2]

I think because of the SEGA GENISIS which I bought cut into SNES sales. My friend had a SNES and a Sega Genisis .

[shinoff2183]

There wasn't as many gamers back in the day as there is these days. Plus sega. Most of the time in the 90s atleast with me or my friends you had either or , not both

[Chittlins]

They did. There were half the amount of people in the world then.

[Minute Man 721]

The world was smaller back then

[jznrpg]

I had Sega Genesis , Super Nintendo and Turbo Grafx 16 with the CD player. All were good in their own ways.

[Machina]

It was really popular in Japan and NA, but not so much in Europe, which acted as a drag on its final total.

[Profchaos]

I think it did well in the US in Australia I recall more people having the mega drive was similar in the UK to.

Not that the SNES failed here it was still popular it just didn't hit the same heights as the NES did.

Funny looking back on it they both had pros and cons over time I became a big fan of both systems

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@Profchaos,

I had both as a kid, but I knew quite a few people had the Genesis, I probably saw equal amounts of owners for both consoles as a kid.

[Agent75]

The Genesis smacked the Super Nintendo in the US, but not in Japan. SEGA owned the arcade market in Japan, yet every console failed in Japan. Probably the weirdest stat in the history of gaming. 8/16bit gaming was the golden age.

[Kiryu1992]

This thing is picking up pace even with some of Sony’s missteps (focusing more on GAAS and charging for next generation patches)

I really hope Sony corrects course and do even better. We need a company that stands with gamers like that E3 conference here they went all out and announced pro consumer policies

[ApocalypseShadow]

Ridiculous. Charging for patches. What patches? How many GaaS games have they released? How many single player games have they released so far on PS5?

Do better in what way? The system and the company are breaking records in sales. The only reason it's not better overall was because of the pandemic slowing their roll which delayed everything else.

You mean the company that gave away some of their games during the pandemic? Same company that has a lesser priced subscription that has more games to choose from compared to their competitor? You mean the same company that gave away a game as a pack in to show you the benefits of the controller which is innovative? You mean the company that gives away free dlc in their flagship game and you can experience that in VR as well? You mean the company that goes out of their way to produce some of the best experiences available that are nominated or award winning? You mean the company that is still offering the option to use physical games for a digital console? You mean the company that started the online service of giving away games to play each month where their competitor started years before but have away nothing for a decade?

Sure. They could always do better. But they are the best currently out of the three that offers more bang, more innovation and pushes the industry forward than the others.

[Kiryu1992]

I am a PlayStation fan and yes they shouldn’t be remaking or remastering games which released recently. PlayStation is generating more money because of higher priced items

[Minute Man 721]

Last of Us 2 should be a free upgrade for existing owners like RE2 is

[Stanjara]

You are drinking too much Sony's cool aid. They could be better af.

[BanginTunes]

Jesus you're defensive. Sony first party isn't in the best place currently since we don't know what's in the works beyond Insomniac's leaks and the live service games, half of which cancelled. I'd argue the games that have released haven't been much better than what was offered on PS4 since a good number ARE on PS4. PS Plus raised the price pretty aggressively at a time where most popular multiplayer games are free to play so you're pretty much punished for playing games like Tekken over Fortnite, and I hear people aren't too happy with the support on PS VR2 though I think it's too early days to worry too much about that. The PS5 isn't a bad console but it's been fairly underwhelming compared to the PS4, what's the big Uncharted 2 or God of War 2018 level game for it that can define the console? I'm sure it'll come but we don't know what it is or when it will come. I don't see how Sony from a games standpoint are doing better than Nintendo right now, they've been releasing high quality new games alongside remakes very consistently.

[JEECE]

Except for you repeating the lie about charging for patches, I agree with your comment. Kind of crazy that PS5 is selling better now than PS4 did at times when PS4 had a confirmed roster of incoming, single player focused exclusives, while the future for PS5 games is hazy at best. We heard so much about the switch to live service and the big investment in Bungie in order to gain their expertise in making those, but now Bungie can't even seem to manage their own live service game, and it's not clear how many of the Sony games will even come out. Which is fine, because I'd rather not have most of them, but a lot of dev time is likely to be lost in projects that either come out DOA or never come out at all.

Sure, we know about Rise of the Ronin, FFVII Rebirth, and that Wolverine is coming, and we know in a vague way that some other single player games are probably coming, but we don't have the same confirmed roster of first party (or third party exclusive) games we often had during PS4.

[TheTony316]

Stelar Blade, Death Stranding 2, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Silent Hill 2.

The PS4 was mostly mediocre in terms of exclusives for the first 3 years.

[crazyCoconuts]

They've been unusually quiet about upcoming games. Obviously their studios have been working on something... Not sure why they feel they have to be so hush hush about it

[dumahim]

"Except for you repeating the lie about charging for patches"

Why? He specifically said next-gen patches which is exactly what they've done. $10 if you want to upgrade to PS5 version after a certain game, which was a while ago now.

[JEECE]

@dumahim

You prove yourself wrong within your own comment. You are confusing a patch for a PS4 game that makes the game run better on PS5 (Sony has never charged for this) with a PS4 game getting a native release on PS5 (Sony has charged for this new version of the game). A great example to illustrate is Ghost of Tsushima. Sony patched the PS4 version to unlock the framerate, letting it run at 60 fps on PS5, which was. Then they also released a native PS5 version with additional features, which they did charge for.

This is not just a semantic difference. Everyone understood this on prior generations. Like there were games that had both PS2 and PS3 versions, but no one thought they should get the PS3 version for free if they owned the PS2 version. Same with games that were on PS3 and PS4. Really the upgrade system where you get a discount is pretty pro-consumer, as is the choice to actually patch the PS4 versions of the games for free to take advantage of PS5, so you can take advantage of the PS5 even if you don't want to pay the upgrade fee.

[dumahim]

@JEECE

I'm not confusing anything. Sony themselves said that games going forward after Horizon Forbidden West will cost $10 to upgrade from PS4 to the PS5 version.

https://blog.playstation.co...

"I also want to confirm today that moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)–both digital and physical*–will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5. This will apply to the next God of War and Gran Turismo 7, and any other exclusive cross-gen PS4 & PS5 title published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

— Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment"

The point being made seems clear to me that Sony decided to charge for this upgrade (as well as other publishers, to be fair) but MS does not as long as the game is cross-gen. I'm not going to try and defend MS as the bastion of being customer friendly (because F them at this point), but they certainly did take the more consumer friendly approach in this case.

edit: I should also mention that Sony had initially pledged free upgrades for their launch window cross-gen games which would have included Horizon, but it was delayed. Due to that delay, they said there would be no upgrade option at all, but had to backtrack on that.

https://gamerant.com/horizo...

[Jin_Sakai]

Trying to figure out why you have so many disagrees but I see you edit your comment. I have no idea what was previously said.

[BehindTheRows]

"Focusing on GaaS".

So, where are all these GaaS games and what teams are making them?

[-Foxtrot]

Really? Of course they've been focusing on them, why do you think the PS5 line up first party wise is a little lacking. They've been doing a 180 lately and either slowing down support or cancelling them altogether like Factions II.

I mean their two biggest acquisitions over the past couple of years are GaaS focused. Bungie with Destiny and Marathon under their belt and New Haven being bought without actually having anything but a GaaS game in development. That's how serious they were with their GaaS plans, they just went all in with New Haven without actually having anything behind them.

The reason we haven't seen much now because their plans have changed and we are seeing less of them but there's obviously going to be some that are probably so far into development they will be coming.

[crazyCoconuts]

The assumption that we haven't heard about upcoming games because all the studios decided to work on GaaS (and wanted to keep it a secret) and they're changing direction now and starting from scratch... I don't know, it's a guess, but I think it's a stretch.
Sure Bungie is doing to do online. And yeah Factions went Foobar. But what has everyone else been working on?

[BehindTheRows]

@-Foxtrot

Yeah, Foxtrot, really. Y'all keep bitchin' about "all these GaaS games" yet, never show a single example of this closet of projects. It's either put up or shut up. And you are a particular flavor of this because you often complain about things.

Same nonsense levied at Sony that they were "planning to do the same with the PS4 that Microsoft was doing with the Xbox One". Then it was, "it didn't happen because plans changed". Like I said. And around and around this ride goes.

As far as their "biggest acquisition"? Bungie wasn't for making a portfolio of GaaS titles (which wouldn't be exclusive to PlayStation anyway). Insomniac has proven to be a far bigger asset to the company and not a single GaaS game has come from them. And then, as usual, you didn't answer my question. Just wild speculation without a lick of proof.

@crazyCoconuts

Exactly. They love to claim this, yet, never show when/where this was happening. It's "but Sony is only working on GaaS games". They act like after the PS4, all Sony has are teams with GaaS games they were "secretly" working and are now "secretly changing direction". It's not even a stretch. It's nonsense until proven otherwise.

[Realms]

Sony? Or the video game industry as a whole needs to do better? Look as much as people want to complain MS is the one who started charging for online, EA was the one that pushed hard for GaaS and even solid developers like CD project red have faulted with an unfinished sloppy releases like Cyber Punk 2077. So singling out Sony who has been pretty consistent is unfair. Yes they are tone def at times specially with the price increase of ps plus which is why I canceled my subscription, but Sony and Nintendo games are why I'm still gaming when they stop releasing single player experiences I will just stop gaming.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I do feel like the AAA gaming industry is pretty sickly at the moment, I also don't think the PS5 or Series X is doing as well as they could either. AAA developers releasing a slew of buggy, incomplete games and charging more, or selling stuff that would normally be included as DLC.

[repsahj]

I'm happier with my two years of PS5 gaming than I have been with my entire PS4 gen.

[fr0sty]

You're basing this on outdated info... they dropped the whole GaaS thing when Ryan was given the boot.

[SimpleSlave]

Enjoy the W while you can Phonies cuz once Super Mario World 3 and Super Metroid 2 come out in the following months the SNES will destroy the PS5 and finally pass the Philips CD-i for sure.

Dreamcast!!! We comin' for you sucka!

[specialguest]

Wait until the top secret Ultra 64 is unveiled. They have no clue what's about to come

[SimpleSlave]

I heard the 64 stand for 64-bit power. Mind🤯 The competition is about to find.

[specialguest]

@Simple

Shhh... don't freak out the competition. Not only that, it is rumored to use Silicon Graphics, but the top-TOP secret weapon is a rumored development of a future GOTY (maybe even generation) involving Superman!

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Yeah, but Genesis does what Nintendon't, Sega will be the one to surpass the PS5!

[Zenzuu]

Good stuff.

[TheTony316]

Would be at 70-80 million without shortages

[BehindTheRows]

Maybe not that high, but definitely higher than it is.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Great stuff playstation

[_Decadent_Descent]

Not really all that impressive when the PS5 has 30+ years of industry growth and expansion to benefit from.

[DarXyde]

The first PlayStation sold more than 100M units.

I think it's more than just industry growth and expansion.

[shinoff2183]

The original ps1 was an exciting time. It helped usher in video games more mainstream. Like up to the snes most were considered needs if you were real into it. The ps1 opened the world up to real er stuff.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@shinoff2183,

I think the most exciting thing about the PS1 was the graphics, finally being able to have an arcade-like experience in your own home was a big draw, a lot of people didn't even believe it was possible for Sony to do this. They gave their competition a hard time when the PS1 came out.

[gold_drake]

id love to know how far ahead it would be if covid didnt happen, i mean its seeling like crazy

[jznrpg]

Surprising SNES only sold about 50 million.

[shinoff2183]

It is a bit surprising for sure.

[anast]

The rate the PS5 is dominating is insane.

[ocelot07]

Why did I think the SNES was at near 100m?

[contra157]

Except the snes will be more inspiring and rememberable

[Agent75]

In the US, the Genesis outsold the Super Nintendo. Legendary days having those consoles. But you could go on for years comparing current consoles to older consoles. Worst part of it is when comparing home consoles against handheld consoles. The Switch, which is a handheld console, has basically zero competition. Comparing Switch sales against PS5 sales is a virtually pointless exercise. If that's your thing, then compare car sales against motorbike sales or beans versus peas.

[Juancho51]

Not surprised, it’s a hell of a console. In this day and age of gaming I think everyone should own a ps5, a pc or xbox, and a switch.