Its no secret that the console world has always had competition between 2, 3 or more companies competing for a share in the market and to produce a product that the average consumer would want.

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Its also no secret however, that the older generation of consoles sold the best, this is mainly down the rise of PC gamers in recent years and the paid online subscriptions from newer consoles, something that is free for retro gamers and PC users alike.

So here is my pick of the top 5 best selling Retro consoles of all time.

5 – GameBoy advanced. 81.51million sold.

Released in Japan in 2001 and Europe and America the following year, over its 9 year life, the gameboy advanced sold more than 81 and a half million units worldwide before they officially stopped production in 2010. remember the Ngage, the Neo Geo, and the Zodiac? No? That's because Nintendo knew what gamers who were looking for a hand held wanted and they dominated the market. As well as having some awesome titles including Zelda, Mario, Pokemon and many more, the gameboy advanced could link up with 4 other handhelds, had full backlit and colour screen, was 32bit, included shoulder buttons, full backwards compatibility and available in different colours to cater for boys and girls.

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4 – Nintendo Entertainment System. 61.91 million sold.

Another entry by Nintendo, but this one helped the American gaming market from stopping altogether during the game crash of 1983. The NES came bundled with a dual cartridge game that had super Mario brothers or both Mario and Duck Hunt when sold with the zapper bundle, which just helped to entice customers to buy. The huge success of the NES came from arcade games that had been ported over to the NES. This meant that kids didn't have to fill a machine up with money to play their favourite games, just a one time purchase and they could play to there hearts content. During its 12 year life span, the NES sold nearly 70 million units world wide and spawned a mountain of add on peripherals such as BoB, the power glove, speed board, game genie and so many more. Most third party companies trying to cash in on Nintendo's success.

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3 – Sony PlayStation. 102.49 million sold.

The Play Station, or as its better known now, the PS1, was a huge game changer in the gaming world. Capable of rendering high quality 3d games with CD quality sound and the ability to save game progress on a memory card. But it may not have been. Nintendo originally worked with Sony to create the Play station, but after some disputes over Sony holding more royalty rights with disc production, Nintendo went to Panasonic to cut a better deal. Sony didn't like this and set out to crush Nintendo and take their once dominating market share. Which they ended up doing. A total of 102.5 million units had been sold by the time it was discontinued in 2006. a true success story that stared with betrayal.

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2 – GameBoy & GameBoy Colour, 118.69 million sold.

Just as the NES was an 8 bit console, so was the GameBoy that was released 6 years later in 1989. while it went up against competition like the Game Gear, Lynx and Turbo Express, the success of the gameboy lied in the amount of games that was available on the small handheld, many of which were ports from the NES that worked just as good, even though it was black and white, but then came the gameboy colour that blew all before it out of the water, allowing gamers to enjoy their favourites in full colour. By the time the gameboy was discontinued, it had sold well over 118 million units world wide, making it the most successful hand held of all time. (with the exception of the DS but that isn't retro enough to be included on this list.)

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1 – Sony Play Station 2. 155+ million sold.

The Play Station 2, or PS2 as its better known, improved upon its predecessors success by a good margin. The PS2 had improved power, graphics, sound, could be connected to the internet for online play, had USB ports and could now play DVD videos. So many people wanted the console that many stores had sold out and the only place to buy it was on sites such as eBay where other people had bought them in bulk and were selling them off at double the price, some times more, and people were paying it. So successful was the PS2 that it made Sega discontinue the dreamcast after only 18 months from its launch. The main selling point was the DVD player that the Xbox lacked unless it was an add-on and the game cube lacked entirely. It was also Launched with highly anticipated game exclusives like the GTA series and Metal Gear Solid Sons of Liberty. Something Microsoft were desperate for.
Released in 2000, the game had sold in excess of 155 million units and didn't stop production until 2013, 7 years after the PS3 was launched, that is how popular it was.

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it is amazing to think how quickly and how many of these consoles were sold in a short space of time, and even more amazing how long they stay in production for. With such huge improvements in modern consoles, its amazing how little they sell when compared to their retro counterparts, proving once and for all, the Golden age of gaming has been and gone.

Thanks for reading.
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The Best Selling RETRO Game Consoles of All Time! - Retro Gaming Top 5 - Part 36.