Part of a series on the
History of video games
Early history Early history of video games Early mainframe games
Consoles History of video game consoles Console war 1st generation (1972–1983) 2nd generation (1976–1992) Video game crash of 1983 3rd generation (1983–2003) 4th generation (1987–2003) 5th generation (1993–2005) 6th generation (1998–2013) 7th generation (2005–2017) 8th generation (2012–present) 9th generation (2020–present) Impact of COVID-19 2022–2025 layoffs
Arcade video games History of arcade video games Golden age of arcade video games Timeline of arcade video game history
Other platforms History of browser games History of cloud gaming History of emulation History of mobile games History of personal computer games History of virtual reality games
Genres List of genres History of East Asian role-playing video games History of Western role-playing video games History of online games History of real-time strategy games History of tactical role-playing games History of single-player video games History of multiplayer video games History of massively multiplayer online games
Lists List of video games in development
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Ahome video game console is avideo game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as atelevision, and an external power source as to playvideo games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few games fixed into the electronic circuits of the system, most consoles since support the use of swappable game media, either throughgame cartridges,optical discs, or throughdigital distribution to internal storage.

There have been numerous home video game consoles since the first commercial unit, theMagnavox Odyssey in 1972. Historically these consoles have been grouped intogenerations lasting each about six years based on common technical specifications. As of 2025^[update], there have been nine console generations, with the current leading manufacturers beingSony,Microsoft, andNintendo, colloquially known as the "Big 3".

A home video game console is a pre-designed piece of electronic hardware that is meant to be placed at a fixed location at one's home, connected to a display like a television screen or computer monitor, and to an external power source, to play video games on using one or morevideo game controllers. This differs from ahandheld game console which will have a built-in screen, controller buttons/features, and a power supply like a battery or battery pack.

Earlier home consoles were typically built from a selection of standard and highly customized integrated computer chips, packaged onto circuit boards and cases. Over time, home console design has converged to a degree withpersonal computers, using similar component and system design, including standardization with main computer chip architecture. Consoles remain as fixed systems, lacking the customization options that personal computer components have, and most consoles include customized components to maximize space and reduce power consumption to provide the best performance for game playing, while lowering costs with reduced storage and memory configurations.^[1]

Home video game consoles typically can play a multitude of games, offered either asgame cartridges (or ROM cartridges), on optical media like CD-ROM or DVD, or obtained bydigital distribution. Early consoles, also considered dedicated consoles, had games that were fixed in the electronic circuitry of the hardware. Some facets may be controlled by switching external controls on the console but the games could not be changed themselves.

Most home consoles require a separate game controller, and may support multiple controllers for multiplayer games. Some console games can only be played with special, unconventional game controllers, such aslight guns forrail shooters andguitar controllers formusic games. Some consoles also possess the ability to connect and interface with a particular handheld game system, which certain games can leverage to provide alternate control schemes,second screen gameplay elements, exclusive unlockable content or the ability to transfer certain game data.

The first commercial video game console was theMagnavox Odyssey, developed by a team led byRalph H. Baer and released commercially in 1972. It was shortly followed by the release of thehome version ofPong byAtari Inc. in 1975 based on the arcade game. A number ofclones of both systems rushed to fill the nascent home console market and the video game industry suffered a small recession in 1977 due to this.

TheFairchild Channel F, released in 1976, was the first console to usegame cartridges, which was then used by theAtari VCS and several other consoles of the second generation and led to a second boom in the video game industry in the United States and around the globe. During this time, Atari Inc. had been sold toWarner Communications, and several programmers left the company and foundedActivision, becoming the first third-party developer. Activision's success led to a rush of new developers creating games without any publishing controls for these systems. The market became flooded with games, and combined with the rising popularity of the personal computer and the economic recession of the early 1980s, led to thevideo game crash of 1983 in the U.S. market.Nintendo, which had released itsFamily Computer console in Japan that year, took several cautionary steps to limit game production to only licensed games, and was able to introduce it, rebranded as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 into the U.S. market. The NES helped to revive the console market and gave Nintendo dominance during the late 1980s.

Sega took advantage of the newfound U.S. growth to market itsSega Genesis against theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s in the so-called "console wars" and emphasized the notion of "bits" as a major selling point for consumers. The consumer adoption ofoptical discs with larger storage capacity in the mid-1995 led many console manufactures to move away from cartridges toCD-ROMs and later toDVDs and other formats, with Sony'sPlayStation line introducing even more features that gave it an advantage in the market; thePlayStation 2, released in 2000, remains the best-selling console to date with over 155 million units sold. Microsoft, fearing that the PlayStation 2 was threatening the competitive edge of the personal computer, entered the console space with itsXbox line in 2001. Internet connectivity had become commonplace by the mid-2000s, and nearly all home consoles supporteddigital distribution and online service offerings by the 2010s.

With Sony and Microsoft's dominance in hardware capabilities, most other major manufacturers have since dropped out of the hardware business, but maintain a presence in the game development and licensing space. Nintendo remains the only competitor having taken ablue ocean strategy by offering more original console concepts such as motion sensing in theWii and the hybrid design of theNintendo Switch.

Within the home video game console market, the leading consoles have often been grouped into generations, consoles that were major competitors in the marketplace. There have been nine generations of consoles since the 1970s, with a new generation appearing about every five years.

Overview of the console generations, including generation overlaps. Major consoles of each generation are given for each.

There are more than 1000 home video game consoles known to exist, the vast majority of which were released during the first generation: only 105 home video game consoles were released between the second and current generation, and 15 were canceled.^[a] This list is divided intoconsole generations 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" (sixth generation) was the final era in which this practice was widespread.

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 are not 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.

This list does not include other types ofvideo game consoles such ashandheld game consoles, which are usually of lower computational power thanhome consoles due to their smaller size;microconsoles, which are usually low-cost Android-based devices that rely on downloading;retro style consoles; ordedicated 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.

The list omits the more than 900 home video game consoles known to have been released in thefirst generation of video game consoles, those that were generally game consoles for a single dedicated game, such as homePong consoles. Documented consoles of this generation can be found atlist of first generation home video game consoles.

• List of best-selling game consoles
• List of game controllers
• List of video game console emulators
• Lists of video game consoles
  • List of dedicated video game consoles
  • List of handheld game consoles
  • List of microconsoles
  • List of retro style video game consoles
  • Lists of video games

• Lists of video game consoles
• Home video game consoles
• Technology-related lists

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