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Atari 7800 second USA market leader in 1988


high voltage

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But the article actually doesn't assert the assumption that you're making: it does not equate 'Atari's share' with the 7800. It instead seems to conflate sales of all three Atari consoles on the market at that time.I think that estimate was just that, too, and was later revised downwards.

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But the article actually doesn't assert the assumption that you're making: it does not equate 'Atari's share' with the 7800. It instead seems to conflate sales of all three Atari consoles on the market at that time.I think that estimate was just that, too, and was later revised downwards.

 

Marketshare is one of those things that both video game fans and also publications always tended to mess up.

 

Typically it measured the number of items sold at any given time period, not the number in use. It also tended to be focused on a region.

 

For example, say Atari ran a super aggressive promotion in the USA during November of 1988. As a result, 24% of all video game consoles sold during November of 1988in the USA were by Atari. Atari would be listed as having "24% marketshare" during November 1988 in the USA.

 

Now suppose the promotion ended and in December, Sega ran a promotion. Now suppose December 1988 saw Sega sell 20% of video games, while Atari only sold 15% of video games sold that month.

 

In neither case, do the numbers reflect their percentage of the total number of consoles they've ever sold; the installed base of active users; nor their totals outside of the USA.

 

But for some reason, you'd see pubs and people interpret it like that

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In neither case, do the numbers reflect their percentage of the total number of consoles they've ever sold; the installed base of active users; nor their totals outside of the USA.

 

But for some reason, you'd see pubs and people interpret it like that

 

I agree, but we are also limited to analyzing the data that is publicly available. Media reports and news stories are certainly not the most reliable source, especially for this type of data, but frequently they are the only source available, so we have no choice but to make use of them...

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I agree, but we are also limited to analyzing the data that is publicly available. Media reports and news stories are certainly not the most reliable source, especially for this type of data, but frequently they are the only source available, so we have no choice but to make use of them...

 

Yes, agree.

 

Just saying that the media often doesn't understand what the data is and therefore doesn't report it correctly.

 

Quite a few times, I've seen a report like this, followed by a "But I thought Nintendo had 90% of the market" type comment without either party understanding what is being measured here.

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I like how the word "leader" is put there quite haphazardly, if you take it out "Atari second in USA market in 1988" it sounds less "important" although it may have been likely true wrt console sales, add there a "distant second" and as we get closer to the truth that "leader" word sounds even more ludicrous.

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