a brief history of video game consoles

first generation

    1972 - magnavox odyssey

    1975 - atari home pong

    1975 - coleco telstar series

    1976 - color tv-game series*^

second generation

    1976 - fairchild channel f

    1977 - atari 2600*

    1978 - magnavox odyssey 2

    1980 - intellivision

    1982 - colecovision

third generation

    1983 - nintendo entertainment system*

    1985 - sega master system

    1986 - atari 7800

fourth generation

    1987 - turbografx-16

    1988 - sega genesis

    1990 - super nintendo*

    1991 - phillips cd-i

fifth generation

    1993 - atari jaguar

    1994 - sega saturn

    1994 - playstation*

    1996 - nintendo64

sixth generation

    1998 - sega dreamcast

    2000 - playstation 2*

    2001 - nintendo gamecube

    2001 - xbox

seventh generation

    2005 - xbox 360

    2006 - playstation 3

    2006 - nintendo wii*

eighth generation

    2012 - wii u

    2013 - playstation 4

    2013 - xbox one

    2017 - nintendo switch*

ninth generation

    2020 - playstation 5

    2020 - xbox series x/s

    2025 - tba 'nintendo switch 2'

^other than color tv-game series (japan only), list does not include releases outside of the united states
*denotes bestseller of its generation

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