Nintendo’s quarterly earnings may not have been too strong , and the Wii U is staging a fight for its life , but one thing is for certain: when taken as a whole, Nintendo’s historic sales are, in a word, impressive.

NES/Famicom

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate NES/Famicom 61.91 Million 500.01 Million 8.08

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Game Boy

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate Game Boy 118.69 Million 501.11 Million 4.22

SNES/Super Famicom

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate SNES/Super Famicom 49.1 Million 379.06 Million 7.72

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Nintendo 64

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate Nintendo 64 32.93 Million 224.97 Million 6.83

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Game Boy Advance

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate Game Boy Advance 81.51 Million 377.42 Million 4.63

GameCube

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate GameCube 21.74 Million 208.57 Million 9.59

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DS

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate DS 153.98 Million 942.32 Million 6.12

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Game Title Release Year Copies Sold Animal Crossing: Wild World 2005 11.7 Million Brain Age 2005 19 Million Brain Age 2 2005 14.88 Million Mario Kart DS 2005 23.34 Million New Super Mario Bros. 2006 30.38 Million Nintendogs 2005 23.94 Million Pokémon Black/White 2010 15.42 Million Pokémon Diamond/Pearl 2006 17.63 Million Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver 2009 12.67 Million Super Mario 64 DS 2004 10.83 Million

Wii

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate Wii 100.9 Million 892.34 Million 8.84

Game Title Release Year Copies Sold Mario Kart Wii 2008 34.26 Million New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009 27.88 Million Wii Fit 2007 22.67 Million Wii Fit Plus 2009 20.86 Million Wii Play 2006 28.02 Million Wii Sports 2006 81.99 Million Wii Sports Resort 2009 31.89 Million Super Mario Galaxy 2007 11.72 Million Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2008 11.49 Million

3DS

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate 3DS 42.74 Million 152.29 Million 3.56

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Game Title Release Year Copies Sold Animal Crossing: New Leaf 2012 3.86 Million Kid Icarus: Uprising 2012 1.18 Million Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon 2013 1.22 Million Mario & Luigi: Dream Team 2013 2 Million Mario Kart 7 2011 8.08 Million Mario Tennis Open 2012 1.11 Million New Super Mario Bros. 2 2012 6.42 Million Nintendogs + Cats 2011 3.28 Million Paper Mario: Sticker Star 2012 1.97 Million Pokémon Rumble Blast 2011 1.29 Million Pokémon X/Y 2013 11.61 Million Super Mario 3D Land 2011 8.29 Million The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 2013 2.18 Million The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D 2011 2.95 Million Tomodachi Collection 2013 1.82 Million

Wii U

Console Name Hardware Sales Software Sales Attach Rate Wii U 5.86 Million 29.37 Million 5.01

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Game Title Release Year Copies Sold New Super Mario Bros. U 2012 2.15 Million Nintendo Land 2012 2.6 Million Super Mario 3D World 2013 1+ Million The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD 2013 1+ Million Wii Party U 2013 1+ Million

Let’s go through the numbers console-by-console and handheld-by-handheld and see just how well each one did. All sales numbers are accurate and up-to-date as of the end of December, 2013.The NES (or Family Computer, if you’re Japanese) launched in 1983 in the east, 1985 in North America, and was out in Europe and Australia alike by 1987. It was Nintendo’s first piece of mainstream hardware and had an undeniable impact on the gaming industry. Here are its life-to-date sales.NES’ attach rate of over eight games per console sold is strong, but most impressive is that overall number. During the NES’ lifecycle around the world, it managed to sell half a billion games… and this was long before the availability of digital titles.The Game Boy emerged in Japan in North America in 1989 and began to spread to other parts of the world by 1990. It, alongside the NES, represented a time when Nintendo completely dominated gaming. The NES had no equal, and neither did the Game Boy. Future iterations of the Game Boy hardware (Pocket and Color, but included here) gave it significant staying power.A glaring number here is the attach rate. Game Boy is Nintendo’s second best-selling piece of hardware in its history, but it also has one of the weakest attach rates.The successor to the NES, the Super Nintendo (also known as the SNES; Super Famicom in Japan), launched in late 1990 in Japan, in 1991 in North America, and elsewhere in the world in 1992. It, too, left an indelible mark on the gaming industry, but unlike the NES, it had real competition in the form of SEGA’s Genesis (known in parts of the world as the Mega Drive). This, of course, cut into its total sales numbers, seen below.Lower hardware sales led, in turn, to lower software sales and a slightly softer attach rate. With that said, the attach rate is quite near that of NES’.The Nintendo 64 launched in 1996 in Japan and North America and elsewhere in the world in 1997, and like the SNES before it, it encountered staunch competition in the market. Unlike the SNES, however, the N64 couldn’t wage battle against its competitor effectively, relegating it to a distant second place during the generation. Still, N64 carved out a significant niche, selling quite a bit of software alongside fairly paltry hardware numbers.Weaker hardware sales led to weaker software sales, which naturally dinged the console’s attach rate. Still, N64 saw some great games in its lifetime, including two games widely considered to be among the best ever released: Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.Launched in 2001 around the world and wedged into the timeframe right before Nintendo released the successor to the N64 – the GameCube – GBA is well-remembered. It was affordable, it had a great library of games, and it had a bit of staying power, too, though it was quickly eclipsed by Nintendo’s hyper-popular DS line after only a few years on the market.GBA didn’t live alone on the market for long – DS interrupted its flow – so its low attach rate could possibly be attributed to that. Given a few more years of uninterrupted vibrancy, its attach rate would have likely been much higher.Nintendo’s GameCube was – by far – its least-successful home console, but there’s a major catch when we talk about it: its attach rate is rather impressive, because even though it barely passed 20 million in worldwide, lifetime sales, it had a fervent and dedicated fanbase that bought lots of games for it. Here, see for yourself.Not only was GameCube’s attach rate of over nine and a half games per console impressive; it was, at the time, the highest attach rate of any Nintendo hardware up to that point in time, and still holds the crown today.Nintendo’s single most popular piece of hardware in its history is its tiny, two-screened handheld, the DS. Launched in Japan and North America in 2004 and elsewhere in the world in 2005, Nintendo DS’ success is legendary. It is, indeed, the best-selling piece of hardware in the history of gaming, just barely eclipsing Sony’s popular PlayStation 2 console. And lots of games were sold, too.DS’ attach rate isn’t as extraordinary as you’d expect, but taking the two individual numbers on their own – of hardware and software sold – it’s easy to see where the “it prints money” meme for the DS came from.And then there are DS’ best-selling games. These numbers will floor you.It makes sense that Nintendo would follow-up its most popular handheld with its most popular console. The Wii represents a high point for Nintendo as far as dominating your living room is concerned. It became a cultural phenomenon, and its impressive hardware and software sales are all the proof you need to know that, for a few years, Nintendo was just about everywhere.Wii’s attach rate flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that many people didn’t purchase games outside of a few big titles, though it’s important to note that Nintendo appears to count Wii Sports – a bundle-in – as a game sold.Here are some of Wii’s best-selling first-party games to further drive the point home.The 3DS saw early struggles when it first came to the market in 2011, but Nintendo has quickly righted the ship with a deluge of quality games and surging hardware sales that have been amongst the highest in the gaming industry for several years running. Unfortunately for the 3DS, its attach rate is quite weak. In fact, it’s so far the weakest in Nintendo’s history for any of its hardware, console and handheld alike.The good news for 3DS is that its story isn’t entirely written yet. Its low attach rate can be remedied in future years if Nintendo keeps the software coming at a steady rate. And so far, it seems like that is indeed the company’s intention.Here are some of the best-selling 3DS games from the first party, to date.Finally, we’ve come to the Wii U. Its struggles in its first year on the market are well documented; we don’t need to rehash them here. But there’s hope in 2014: the library of upcoming games is promising , and while the Wii U is unlikely to ever reach far beyond GameCube or N64 numbers, it will certainly carve out its niche of gamers who love Nintendo’s high-quality, first party offerings.At just a shade over five games sold per console, Wii U is already garnering some steam with those that already own it. Its challenge will continue to be getting people outside of the Nintendo hardcore interested in it. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.Yet, Wii U also has some million-sellers worth noting.

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter.