List of home video game consoles
This is a list of home video game consoles in chronological order, which includes all known home video game consoles after the first generation, from the first console, Magnavox Odyssey, to the first ever ROM cartridge-based console Fairchild Channel F, ranging from the major video game companies such as Magnavox, Atari, Fairchild, Intellivision Entertainment, Coleco, Nintendo, Sega, NEC, 3DO, SNK, Sony, and Microsoft to modern market consoles.
This list is divided into eras which are named based on the dominant console type of the era, though not all consoles of those eras are of the same type. Some eras are referred to based on how many bits a major console could process. The "128-bit era" was the final era in which this practice was widespread.
This list does not include other types of video game consoles such as handheld game consoles, which are usually of lower computational power than home consoles due to their smaller size, microconsoles, which are usually low-cost Android-based devices that rely on downloading, or dedicated consoles past the first generation, which have games built in and do not use any form of physical media. Consoles have been redesigned from time to time to improve their market appeal. Redesigned models are not listed on their own.
Map key
There are a total of 98 video game platforms released since the second generation, and 10 canceled platforms as well as 2 announced upcoming consoles.This list only counts the first iteration of each console's hardware, because several systems have had slim, enhanced or other hardware revisions, but they aren't individually listed here. The list also includes unreleased systems. If a series of home video game consoles begins in a generation and lasts to another generation, it is listed in the generation the series began. This list does not claim to be complete.
First generation (1972–1984)
There are home video game consoles known to have been released in the first generation of video game consoles. They can be found in the list of first generation home video game consoles.Second generation (1976–1992)
There were a total of 21 home video game consoles released in the second generation, and 1 cancelled platform;Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold |
Fairchild Channel F | Fairchild | ca. 250,000 | |
RCA Studio II | RCA | ? | |
Bally Astrocade | Midway | ? | |
Atari 2600 | Atari Inc. | ca. 30 million | |
APF-MP1000 | APF | ? | |
Champion 2711 | Unisonic | ? | |
Interton VC 4000 | Interton | ? | |
Palladium Tele-Cassetten Game | 1978 | Palladium | ? |
1292 Advanced Programmable Video System | Audiosonic | ? | |
Magnavox Odyssey 2 | Magnavox / Philips | ? | |
APF Imagination Machine | APF | ? | |
Bandai Super Vision 8000 | Bandai | ? | |
Intellivision | Mattel | 3+ Million | |
VTech CreatiVision | VTech | ? | |
Epoch Cassette Vision | Epoch | ? | |
Arcadia 2001/Leisure Vision | Emerson Radio | ? | |
SHG Black Point | 1982 | Süddeutsche Elektro-Hausgeräte GmbH & Co. KG | ? |
ColecoVision | Coleco | ca. 2 million | |
Atari 5200 | Atari Inc. | ca. 1 million | |
Vectrex | GCE/Milton Bradley Company | ? | |
Compact Vision TV Boy | Gakken | ? | |
Video Arcade System | cancelled | Ultravision | 0 |
Third generation (1983–2003)
There were a total of home video game consoles released in the third generation, and 3 cancelled platforms;Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold | CPU | "Bits" |
Videopac+ G7400 | Philips | ? | Intel 8048 @ 5.91MHz | 8-bit | |
My Vision | Nichibutsu | ? | ? | 8-bit | |
Pyuuta Jr. | Tomy | ? | ? | 8-bit | |
Sega SG-1000 | Sega | ca. 2 million | Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz | 8-bit | |
NES/Family Computer | Nintendo | ca. 61.91 million | Ricoh 2A03 processor | 8-bit | |
PV-1000 | Casio | ? | Z80A clocked at 3.579 MHz | 8-bit | |
Epoch Super Cassette Vision | Epoch | 400,000 | NEC PD7801G | 8-bit | |
Bridge Companion | BBC/Heber | ? | Zilog Z80 | 8-bit | |
Video Art | LJN | ? | ? | ||
Zemmix | Daewoo Electronics | ? | Zilog Z80 | 8-bit | |
Sega Mark III/Sega Master System | Sega , Tec Toy | ca. 13 million | Zilog Z80 @ 4 MHz | 8-bit | |
Family Computer Disk System | Nintendo | ca. 4.44 million | Ricoh 2A03 processor | 8-bit | |
Videosmarts | Connor Electronics , VTech | ? | ? | ? | |
Atari 7800 | Atari Corporation | ? | ? | 8-bit | |
Atari XEGS | Atari Corporation | ca. 2 million | MOS Technology 6502C | 8-bit | |
Video Challenger | Tomy/Bandai | ? | ? | ? | |
Action Max | Worlds of Wonder | ? | HD401010 | 8-bit | |
View-Master Interactive Vision | View-Master Ideal Group, Inc. | ? | ? | 8-bit | |
Terebikko | Bandai | ? | ? | ? | |
VTech Socrates | VTech | ? | ? | 8-bit | |
Video Driver | Sega | ? | ? | ? | |
Amstrad GX4000 | Amstrad | ca. 15,000 | Zilog Z80 @ 4 MHz | 8-bit | |
Commodore 64 Games System | Commodore | ? | MOS Technology 8500 @ 0.985 MHz | 8-bit | |
RDI Halcyon | cancelled | RDI Video Systems | <12 | Zilog Z80 | ? |
Control-Vision | Cancelled | Digital Pictures & Hasbro | 0 | ? | ? |
Кроха | cancelled | :ru:СКБ Контур|SKB Kontur | ~200 | K580VM80A 2 MHz | ? |
- The Videopac+ G7400 was planned to be released in America as the Odyssey³ Command Center, with a different case design, but it never occurred, although some prototypes exist.
- Although fully developed, functional, and with 2 games ready, the few Halcyon units that exist were handmade for investors of the company to try out the product, it is not believed that it ever went into full production or entered the market at all. Less than 12 Main Control Units are known to exist, but more Halcyon branded Laserdisc players exist.
- The Кроха was a Soviet console that was ready to launch, but production halted, only one game was made, and the approximately 200 consoles were given out to employees of the factory that manufactured it.
Fourth generation (1987–2004)
Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold | CPU | "Bits" |
PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 | NEC | ca. 10 million | Hudson Soft HuC6280 | 16-bit | |
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive | Sega | ca. 35.25 million | Motorola 68000 @ 7.6 MHz, Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz | 16-bit | |
TurboGrafx-CD/CD-ROM² | NEC | ? | ? | 16-bit | |
PC Engine2/SuperGrafx | NEC | ? | Hudson Soft HuC6280 | 16-bit | |
Neo-Geo AES | SNK | ca. 750,000 | Motorola 68000 @ 12 MHz, Zilog Z80A @ 4 MHz | 24-bit | |
Super NES/Super Famicom | Nintendo | ca. 49.1 million | Ricoh 5A22 @ 3.58 MHz | 16-bit | |
Commodore CDTV | Commodore | ? | Motorola 68000 @ 7 MHz | 16-bit | |
CD-i | Various | ca. 1.5 million | Philips SCC68070 @ 15.5 MHz | 16-bit | |
Sega CD/Mega CD | Sega | ca. 2.24 million | Motorola 68000 @ 12.5 MHz | 16-bit | |
Memorex VIS | Memorex/Tandy Corp | ca. 15,000 | Intel 80286 @ 12 MHz | 16-bit | |
Sega Pico | Sega/Majesco Entertainment | ? | Motorola 68000 @ 7.6 MHz, Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz | 16-bit | |
Picno | 1992 | Konami | ? | ? | 16-bit |
Pioneer LaserActive | Pioneer Corporation | ? | ? | 16-bit | |
Neo-Geo CD | SNK | ? | Motorola 68000 @ 12 MHz, Zilog Z80 @ 4 MHz | 16-bit | |
Sega 32X | Sega | 800,000 | 2 × SH-2 32-bit RISC @ 23 MHz | 32-bit | |
Satellaview | Nintendo | ? | ? | 16-bit | |
Super A'Can | Funtech | ? | Motorola 68000 @ 10.738635 MHz | 16-bit | |
Konix Multisystem | cancelled | Konix | 0 | ? | 16-bit |
Atari Panther | cancelled | Atari Corporation | 0 | Motorola 68000 | 32-bit |
WOWOW | cancelled | Taito | 0 | ? | ? |
SNES-CD | cancelled | Nintendo | 0 | ? | 16-bit |
- SNK created the Neo Geo CD as a much cheaper alternative to the AES, lowering the price of games considerably, from ~300$ to ~50$. It's essentially an AES console with a media format change from cartridges to CDs, placing it in the fourth generation.
Fifth generation (1993–2005)
Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold | CPU | "Bits" |
FM Towns Marty | Fujitsu | ? | AMD 386SX at 16 MHz | 32-bit | |
Amiga CD32 | Commodore | >100,000 | Motorola 68EC020@ 14.18 MHz 14.32 MHz | 32-bit | |
3DO Interactive Multiplayer | Panasonic/Sanyo /GoldStar | 2 million | RISC CPU ARM60 based on ARM architecture @ 12.5 MHz | 32-bit | |
Atari Jaguar | Atari Corporation | <250,000 | Motorola 68000 @ 13.295 MHz, Custom 32-bit graphics RISC "Tom" @ 26.59 MHz, Custom 32-bit sound RISC "Jerry" @ 26.59 MHz | 64-bit | |
CPS Changer | Capcom | ? | Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz | 16-bit | |
Playdia | Bandai | ? | Toshiba TMP87C800F | 8-bit | |
Sega Saturn | Sega | 9.26 million | 2× Hitachi SH-2 @ 28.6 MHz | 32-bit | |
PlayStation | Sony | 102.49 million | R3000 @ 33.8688 MHz | 32-bit | |
PC-FX | NEC | >400,000 | NEC V810 | 32-bit | |
Apple Bandai Pippin | Bandai /Apple Inc. | 42,000 | PowerPC 603 RISC | 32-bit | |
Atari Jaguar CD | Atari Corporation | ? | ? | 64-bit | |
Casio Loopy | Casio | ? | RISC SH-1 | 32-bit | |
Nintendo 64 | Nintendo | 32.93 million | NEC VR4300 @ 93.75 MHz | 64-bit | |
Nintendo 64DD | Nintendo | >15,000 | ? | 64-bit |
Sixth generation (1998–2013)
There were a total of home video game consoles released in the sixth generation, and 2 cancelled platforms;Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold | CPU | "Bits" |
Dreamcast | Sega | ca. 9.13 million | Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC @ 200 MHz | 128-bit | |
Nuon | VM Labs | >25,000 | Nuon MPE hybrid stack processor | 128-bit | |
PlayStation 2 | Sony | ca 155 million | Emotion Engine @ 294.912 MHz, 299 MHz | 128-bit | |
Nintendo GameCube | Nintendo | ca. 21.74 million | IBM PowerPC Gekko @ 486 MHz | 128-bit | |
Xbox | Microsoft | ca. 24 million | Custom 733 MHz Intel Pentium III "Coppermine-based" processor | 128-bit | |
Interactive DVD KID's | 2002 | RTL | ? | ? | ? |
Xavix PORT | SSD COMPANY LIMITED | ? | ? | 8-bit,16-bit and 32-bit | |
V.Smile | VTech | ? | ? | 128-bit | |
Advanced Pico Beena | Sega | ca. 350,000 | ARM7TDMI clocked at 81MHz | ? | |
V.Smile Baby Infant Development System | VTech | ? | ? | 128-bit | |
L600 | cancelled | Indrema | 0 | x86 @ 600 MHz | 32-bit |
Panasonic M2 | cancelled | Panasonic | 0 | Dual PowerPC 602 Processors @ 66 MHz | 64-bit |
Seventh generation (2005–2017)
There were a total of home video game consoles released in the seventh generation, and 1 cancelled platform;Console / Series | Release date / Lifespan of the series | Manufacturer / Country | Units sold | CPU |
Game Wave Family Entertainment System | ZAPiT | ca. 70,000 | ? | |
Xbox 360 | Microsoft | ca. 83.7 million | Big-endian architecture 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon | |
V.Flash | VTech | ? | ? | |
HyperScan | Mattel | ? | ? | |
PlayStation 3 | Sony | ca. 80 million | 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE & 7 SPEs | |
Wii | Nintendo | ca. 101.63 million | PowerPC 750-based IBM PowerPC "Broadway" @ 729 MHz; 2.9 GFLOPS | |
Zeebo | Zeebo Inc. | ? | ? | |
Phantom | cancelled | Phantom | 0 | ? |
Eighth generation (2012 – present)
There are a total of 4 home video game consoles released in the current generation;Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold | CPU |
Wii U | Nintendo | ca. 13.56 million | PowerPC 750-based 1.24 GHz Tri-Core IBM PowerPC "Espresso" | |
PlayStation 4 | Sony | >106 million | Semi-custom 8-core AMD x86-64 Jaguar 1.6 GHz CPU | |
Xbox One | Microsoft | >41 million | Custom 1.75 GHz AMD 8-core APU | |
Nintendo Switch | Nintendo | ca. 55.77 million | Octa-core @ 1.020 GHz |
- The Nintendo Switch was released during this period, but has been referred to as a hybrid video game console, combining features of home and handheld systems. This is why the Switch appears in both the list of home video game consoles and the list of handheld game consoles.
Upcoming consoles
Name | Release date | Manufacturer | Units sold | CPU |
PlayStation 5 | Q4 2020 | Sony | 0 | AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz |
Xbox Series X | Q4 2020 | Microsoft | 0 | 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz 7nm |