The 10 Best Video Game Consoles Of All Time

For over 40 years video games have been a popular form of entertainment, with the industry now generating more revenue than the TV, film, and music industry. We have seen games go from simple titles such as Pong and Pac-Man to incredibly large realistic experiences on modern platforms.

But, which consoles are the best of all time? Here are the top 10 best video game consoles of all time.

The Atari 2600 is where modern gaming began. While it wasn’t the first console or way to play games when it comes to the rise of gaming’s popularity and games being more than just something like Pong. Although the Atari 2600 doesn’t deserve just praise, it was responsible for the video game crash in North America in 1983. Due to the lack of quality control by Atari, the market was flooded with low-quality third-party titles which led to customers losing faith in video games and the market crashed. Thankfully, the market recovered thanks to companies such as Nintendo, but even with the market crash, it is hard to deny how important the Atari 2600 is to the industry.

The Switch is Nintendo’s latest console, a hybrid between a handheld and traditional home console. Because of this, the Nintendo Switch is vastly underpowered when compared to the other consoles of the same generation, the PS4 and Xbox One, due to the console using an Nvidia mobile CPU and GPU. The game does have some fantastic games though, such as Super Mario Odyssey and Breath Of The Wild, but it also has a lot of shovelware, including a $10 calculator. This makes finding something worthwhile to play incredibly difficult.

Released in 1996, the N64 brought the company into the 3D age. Although it had a small library, just 393 titles across all regions, when a game was good, it usually became legendary. Titles such as Goldeneye 007, Super Mario 64, and The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time are hailed as some of the greatest games of all time.

Following the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega decided to get into the console market too with the Master System, which began a rivalry between the two companies with slogans such as “Sega does what Nintendon’t”. The Mega Drive was their second console and rivaled the Super Nintendo, with titles such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Golden Axe, and Streets Of Rage 2. It was a great console that has plenty of titles to go back and revisit if you didn’t play them during its initial lifecycle.

The console that saved video games. Following the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo released the NES in 1985 along with Super Mario Bros, and the rest is history. The NES became an instant hit with players and helped customers regain trust in the industry. During this generation, Nintendo set the stage and released many titles that would begin most of their iconic franchises, such as Super Mario Bros, The Legend Of Zelda, Metroid, and Kirby, as well as third party companies beginning many of their franchises on the system, such as Castlevania, Mega Man, and Final Fantasy.

Released in 2005, the Xbox 360 kicked off the seventh generation and became a legendary console, with the generation being when online gaming became common with players, with titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3 becoming legendary. The Xbox 360 had a fantastic library of games, both first party and third party, with top games including Halo 3, the Fable trilogy, the Mass Effect trilogy, the Bioshock trilogy, Resident Evil 5, as well as many Call of Duty and Battlefield games.

The PS4 was the most popular console of the last generation, with it currently being the second best selling console of all time, and the console hasn’t been discontinued yet which means there is still a chance it could take the top spot. The reason for its popularity is thanks to its incredible library of first-party titles such as The Last of Us, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Horizon Zero Dawn. As of right now, the PS4 has sold more than 110 million units, around double of its competitor, the Xbox One.

Following a breakdown between Nintendo and Sony, the company took their planned SNES add-on and developed it into its own console, the PlayStation, which began their journey to becoming the most popular console manufacturer in the world. Released in 1994, the PlayStation brought 3D gaming to the masses, becoming one of the best selling consoles of all time thanks to its incredible library which includes Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, and Gran Turismo. Despite Nintendo releasing a 64-bit console in 1996, compared to the PlayStation’s 32-bit architecture, Sony was still able to dominate the market thanks to the PlayStation’s use of discs as opposed to consoles, which allowed for near unlimited storage capacity, with some titles shipping on three or four discs, allowing for games to be created that wouldn’t be possible on the N64. It is interesting to think how different the video game market would look had the partnership between Sony and Nintendo happened and the PlayStation became an add-on to the SNES.

Released in 1990, the SNES was the follow-up to the popular NES that was released in 1985. Following on from its success, Nintendo continued doing more of the same, bringing popular franchises into the 16-bit age, with titles such as Super Mario World becoming a system seller. Other great games on the system include The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Donkey Kong Country, Street Fighter 2, Super Mario Kart, and Star Fox.