Total Days Between All Console Releases

[Moonface]

Inspired by this post, I had said I wanted to do a full breakdown of the amount of time every console had on the market before its successor was put onto the market, so I finally decided to sit down and do it.

Since things get a bit complicated for consoles in the earlier generations, to start with I'm just going to focus on the consoles of the big three and then branch out from there.

PlayStation (Home Consoles)

• PlayStation (December 3, 1994) – PlayStation 2 (March 4, 2000): 1918 days
  
• PlayStation 2 (March 4, 2000) – PlayStation 3 (November 11, 2006): 2443 days
  
• PlayStation 3 (November 11, 2006) – PlayStation 4 (November 15, 2013): 2561 days
  
• PlayStation 4 (November 15, 2013) – PlayStation 5 (November 19, 2020): 2561 days
  
• PlayStation 5 (November 19, 2020) – Present Day (July 21, 2024): 1340 days
  

Interestingly, the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation 4 were both on the market for the exact same number of days before their successor was released. They also have the most days of any PlayStation home console, tying them both for first place for the platform.

PlayStation (Handhelds)

• PlayStation Portable (December 11, 2004) – PlayStation Vita (December 17, 2011): 2562 days
  
• PlayStation Vita (December 17, 2011) – Discontinued (March 1, 2019): 2631 days
  

Not much to work with here, but shockingly both of Sony's handhelds have more days than any of the above listed home consoles, with the PSP only beating the PS3/PS4 day total by a single day. Vita's record can be debatable since had it been successful, Sony may have released a successor to it earlier than when the Vita was discontinued.

Xbox

• Xbox (November 15, 2001) – Xbox 360 (November 22, 2005): 1468 days
  
• Xbox 360 (November 22, 2005) – Xbox One (November 22, 2013): 2922 days
  
• Xbox One (November 22, 2013) – Xbox Series X/S (November 10, 2020): 2545 days
  
• Xbox Series X/S (November 10, 2020) – Present Day (July 21, 2024): 1349 days
  

Out of the current big three, Xbox holds the record for both longest and shortest time for a console being on the market until its successor released. Had the Xbox 360 released in the same year as the PlayStation 3, then the Xbox 360 would have been on the market for only four days less with 2557 days to the PlayStation 3's 2561 days.

Nintendo (Home Consoles)

• Color TV-Game (June 1, 1977) – Nintendo Entertainment System (July 15, 1983): 2235 days
  
• Nintendo Entertainment System (July 15, 1983) – Super NES (November 21, 1990): 2686 days
  
• Super NES (November 21, 1990) – Nintendo 64 (June 23, 1996): 2041 days
  
• Nintendo 64 (June 23, 1996) – Nintendo GameCube (September 14, 2001): 1909 days
  
• Nintendo GameCube (September 14, 2001) – Wii (November 19, 2006): 1892 days
  
• Wii (November 19, 2006) – Wii U (November 18, 2012): 2191 days
  
• Wii U (November 18, 2012) – Nintendo Switch (March 3, 2017): 1566 days
  
• Nintendo Switch (March 3, 2017) – Present day (July 21, 2024): 2697 days
  

As already mentioned in the post that inspired this thread, the Nintendo Switch has recently become Nintendo's longest lasting home console without a successor coming to the market.

Nintendo (Handhelds)

• Game & Watch (April 28, 1980) – Game Boy (April 21, 1989): 3280 days
  
• Game Boy (April 21, 1989) – Game Boy Color (October 21, 1998): 3470 days
  
• Game Boy Color (October 21, 1998) – Game Boy Advance (March 21, 2001): 882 days
  
• Game Boy Advance (March 21, 2001) – Nintendo DS (November 21, 2004): 1341 days
  
• Nintendo DS (November 21, 2004) – Nintendo 3DS (February 26, 2011): 2288 days
  
• Nintendo 3DS (February 26, 2011) – Discontinued (September 16, 2020): 3490 days
  

For all but their first and last handhelds, Nintendo really loved releasing them on the 21st day of the month. They also have the shortest record of the big three with the Game Boy Color being on the market for only 882 days before the Game Boy Advance came along. This is also the only category to see not just one but three systems surpass 3000 days on the market before a successor was released (or in the case of the 3DS, was discontinued). They also interestingly start off with very long periods between handheld console releases, then have short periods in the middle before going back to longer periods again.

Home Consoles (PlayStation / Xbox / Nintendo)

1. Xbox 360: 2922 days
   
2. Nintendo Switch: 2697 days*
   
3. Nintendo Entertainment System: 2686 days
   
4. PlayStation 3: 2561 days
   
5. PlayStation 4: 2561 days
   
6. Xbox One: 2545 days
   
7. PlayStation 2: 2443 days
   
8. Color TV-Game: 2235 days
   
9. Wii: 2191 days
   
10. Super NES: 2041 days
    
11. PlayStation: 1918 days
    
12. Nintendo 64: 1909 days
    
13. Nintendo GameCube: 1892 days
    
14. Wii U: 1566 days
    
15. Xbox: 1468 days
    
16. Xbox Series X/S: 1349 days*
    
17. PlayStation 5: 1340 days*
    

A pretty balanced turnout here at the top of the ranks, with it only seeing a lot of consoles from one of the big three grouped together in the bottom half with Nintendo having back-to-back positions from 8-14. I was expecting Wii U to be the shortest home console given its commercial failure, but Nintendo actually managed to take longer releasing something to turn their fortunes around than Xbox did to release something that built on the initial success of the Xbox.

Handhelds (PlayStation / Nintendo)

1. Nintendo 3DS: 3490 days
   
2. Game Boy: 3470 days
   
3. Game & Watch: 3280 days
   
4. PlayStation Vita: 2631 days
   
5. PlayStation Portable: 2562 days
   
6. Nintendo DS: 2288 days
   
7. Game Boy Advance: 1341 days
   
8. Game Boy Color: 882 days
   

PlayStation sit comfortably in the dead center of this ranking, which I suspect would not be the case if this was based on sales rather than days.

Home Consoles & Handhelds (PlayStation / Xbox / Nintendo)

1. Nintendo 3DS: 3490 days
   
2. Game Boy: 3470 days
   
3. Game & Watch: 3280 days
   
4. Xbox 360: 2922 days
   
5. Nintendo Switch: 2697 days*
   
6. Nintendo Entertainment System: 2686 days
   
7. PlayStation Vita: 2631 days
   
8. PlayStation Portable: 2562 days
   
9. PlayStation 3: 2561 days
   
10. PlayStation 4: 2561 days
    
11. Xbox One: 2545 days
    
12. PlayStation 2: 2443 days
    
13. Nintendo DS: 2288 days
    
14. Color TV-Game: 2235 days
    
15. Wii: 2191 days
    
16. Super NES: 2041 days
    
17. PlayStation: 1918 days
    
18. Nintendo 64: 1909 days
    
19. Nintendo GameCube: 1892 days
    
20. Wii U: 1566 days
    
21. Xbox: 1468 days
    
22. Xbox Series X/S: 1349 days*
    
23. Game Boy Advance: 1341 days
    
24. PlayStation 5: 1340 days*
    
25. Game Boy Color: 882 days
    

And now for the final ranking in this part, showing where everything falls for all of the big three's console releases. Nintendo manages to dominate with a lot of long periods between releases at the top of the rankings, but also makes up a lot of the lower half of the ranking and even takes the shortest periods in both the home and handheld console markets.


Well, that's it for now! I'll be covering other systems outside of the big three in the near future, so I hope you look forward to that if you enjoyed this neat compilation of information that took me a few hours to put together.

[ShiraNoMai]

Wow, thanks for the history breakdown. This was really quite interesting to learn about.

I've always known consoles to have a roughly 7-year lifespan, so seeing a couple of these pull the lines in certain eras is unexpected and wild. The Gameboy's lifespan, for example, being as long as it was before it's successor came around. Explains why I got the Color.

[Moonface]

Besides what I already commented with in the OP, something that really stood out to me looking at the lists again is that the 7th Gen of consoles wasn't really any longer than the 6th or 5th. I always remember seeing remarks that the 7th Gen lasted too long compared to earlier gens, but it's impossible to retain that line of thinking when the PS3 and PS4 had the exact same amount of time on the market before their respective successors were launched. It makes me wonder what really made people feel the PS4 was hanging around for too long yet I don't recall seeing similar comments about the PS3.

Also, I feel like being a Pokémon fan at the start must've been rough for whoever was footing the bill for the consoles. R/G come out in 96, and then only two years later the GBC comes out. A year later in '99 it gets G/S, but then yet again two years later the GBA comes out, and a year later we get R/S. If anyone was buying a Game Boy after Pokémon launched, it was obsolete within two years at minimum and definitely obsolete after three years when the next Pokémon games dropped exclusively for the GBC, and then the same occurs for if you buy a GBC for those games when the GBA comes along with R/S. It really speaks to how big the games were at that time for Nintendo to launch two handhelds within less than three years of each other that both had Pokémon sequels you couldn't play on the previous handheld and seemingly not piss people off with that. If a game company tried pulling that in the last decade there would totally be outrage about it.

[Mr EliteL]

I'm also suprised to learn Wii U had longer days than the first Xbox console, was fully expecting Wii U to be last bar Series X and PS5 still running. PS3 and PS4 having equal days is also surprising but also thought the number would be a higher, those days felt long in between. Knew GBC would be lowest although I wasn't paying attention to Nintendo, when I got my Advance it was compatible with Colour games and I was wondering why that was back then, but just accepted it, so when I saw this topic I also had thought Colour would possibly be among the lowest of the bunch.

[ShiraNoMai]

The Color took off spectacularly in the US, notably because it had been a near decade since the original came out and people were hyped purely on the idea that this thing could show your games IN COLOR! Plus, with the backwards compatibility to the existing hardware, it made investing an easy choice.

Apparently Nintendo had been really struggling to get the GBA on its feet cuz that was supposed to come way sooner than it did. 

Seems to be one of those scenarios where, business needed to thrive but also the technology wasn't ready, so both happened around the same time and thus, shorter "lifespans".

[Moonface]

Total Days Between All Console Releases | Part 2
I started this post a few weeks ago but only got around to working on it again now. It was originally going to be longer, but to not hold it back more than I already have this part is just going to be for Sega and Atari rather than every notable company outside of the big three.

Sega (Home Consoles)

• SG-1000 (July 15, 1983) – Master System (October 20, 1985): 828 days
  
• Master System (October 20, 1985) – Sega Genesis (October 29, 1988): 1105 days
  
• Sega Genesis (October 29, 1988) – Sega Saturn (November 22, 1994): 2215 days
  
• Sega Saturn (November 22, 1994) – Dreamcast (November 27, 1998): 1466 days
  
• Dreamcast (November 27, 1998) – Discontinued (March 31, 2001): 855 days
  

Despite being Nintendo's sole rival before PlayStation came along, Sega managed to have two systems with less days than the Game Boy Color's 882 days. Looking at only home consoles, the Sega Saturn just barely sits below the Xbox with only two days on the market less for the Saturn before its respective successor came along. Also, although the days all end when the successor is released, Sega were actually supporting the Master System, Saturn, Genesis, their two handhelds below and some home console add-ons all at the same time on the market at one point.

Sega (Handhelds)

• Game Gear (October 6, 1990) – Genesis Nomad (October 1, 1995): 1821 days
  
• Genesis Nomad (October 1, 1995) – Sega Genesis (January 1, 1999): 1188 days
  

This one is hard to judge accurately, because there is no exact release date (October 1995) or end date (1999) for the Genesis Nomad.

Atari

• Atari 2600 (September 1, 1977) – Atari 5200 (November 1, 1982): 1887 days
  
• Atari 5200 (November 1, 1982) – Atari 7800 (May 1, 1986): 1277 days
  
• Atari 7800 (May 1, 1986) – Atari Jaguar (November 23, 1993): 2763 days
  
  
• Atari 7800 (May 1, 1986) – Atari XEGS (November 1, 1987): 549 days
  
• Atari XEGS (November 1, 1987) – Atari Jaguar (November 23, 1993): 2214 days
  
  
• Atari Jaguar (November 23, 1993) – Discontinued (January 1, 1996): 769 days
  

The Atari is a tough one to calculate, as all but the Jaguar have a specific release date to work with. Furthermore, the 7800 has a successor in both the XEGS and the Jaguar, but the former was more of a repackage rather than a new console; therefore, I opted to split the timeline at the 7800 to show what the duration was for if the XEGS is considered as part of the releases or not. With it, the 7800 has the shortest duration of any console seen so far in this thread. Without it, it goes to being #5 in the overall list of PlayStation/Xbox/Nintendo release durations. Whether the XEGS is considered or not though, Atari's woes at the end of their time in the console market sees them with a guaranteed shortest duration for a console being on the market before a successor is released and/or the console is simply discontinued (as is the case for the Jaguar).