Post Crash sales figures for 2600 and Intellivision?

[Atari Pogostick]

Didn't want to mix this with the ColecoVision thread.

 

Now as we all know, the 2600 and Intellivision got a make over and got a second life selling from 1985-1992 and 1985-1990 respectively.

 

What I'm curious about is whether we have any numbers for these consoles during this period? There are multiple articles from 86-88 talking about either console being "back in the game" or selling out. The 2600 Jr came out in 86 designed like the 7800 and had numerous game releases during that period.

 

Lurking on this forum before, I think there was a post about Atari celebrating 25 million 2600's sold in 85 or 86, which put an end to the old 30 vs. 40 million 2600 LTD debate some years back. This form shifted the consensus to 30. So that would imply the 2600 at least sold around 5 million during the second run wouldn't it?

 

Outside articles of selling out, I've never seen numbers for Intellivision post launch.

 

We have any idea how these two consoles performed during that time?

[ubersaurus]

Atari reported 1 million 2600s were sold worldwide in 1985 (according to a Compute magazine article from April 1986). June 1988 is when Atari declared it had sold 25 million 2600s. (http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_01_2008/post-9346-1201143700.jpg)

 

Beyond that, no info on the 2600 that I'm aware of. The Intellivision folks might still have some old documentation on sales from the INTV years, though I recall years ago seeing Keith Robinson on techtv mentioning they had sold over 3 million Intellivisions overall.

Edited September 7, 2018 by ubersaurus

[mr_me]

Intellivision Productions only has sales numbers up to second quarter 1983. So they don't even have complete Intellivision sales for Mattel. I'm not sure if the 3 million is what it is through june 1983 or an estimate by Keith Robinson. Intellivision Productions has no console sales numbers from INTV Corporation.

 

If you go by the serial number database there were over 3 million Intellivision consoles made by Mattel and at least another half million made by INTV corporation. That doesn't include the Intellivisions made by Digiplay in Brasil. Keith had mentioned that by 1989 production of new cartridges was around ten thousand units.

 

There's a French magazine that reported 1987 united states market share as follows.

 

70% Nintendo

16% Atari

10% Sega

4% Intellivision

 

Those numbers are likely both hardware and software. Atari's share would include 2600, 5200, and 7800 sales.

Tilt - March 1988 - http://www.abandonware-magazines.org/affiche_mag.php?mag=28&num=133&infos=oui

Edited September 7, 2018 by mr_me

[mr_me]

Actually going by serial numbers, I'd have to say the number of Intellivision made by INTV Corp from 1985 to 1990 is well under 500k, maybe under 300k.

[Atari Pogostick]

Intellivision Productions only has sales numbers up to second quarter 1983. So they don't even have complete Intellivision sales for Mattel. I'm not sure if the 3 million is what it is through june 1983 or an estimate by Keith Robinson. Intellivision Productions has no console sales numbers from INTV Corporation.

 

If you go by the serial number database there were over 3 million Intellivision consoles made by Mattel and at least another half million made by INTV corporation. That doesn't include the Intellivisions made by Digiplay in Brasil. Keith had mentioned that by 1989 production of new cartridges was around ten thousand units.

 

There's a French magazine that reported 1987 united states market share as follows.

 

70% Nintendo

16% Atari

10% Sega

4% Intellivision

 

Those numbers are likely both hardware and software. Atari's share would include 2600, 5200, and 7800 sales.

Tilt - March 1988 - http://www.abandonware-magazines.org/affiche_mag.php?mag=28&num=133&infos=oui

You're link is broken.

[Flojomojo]

Link works for me, just a little slow to load at first. That looks like it was a fun magazine, and lots of advertisements, which were almost as compelling as the editorial content back in those days.

 

I think this is the page with the numbers cited:

 

[mr_me]

Looking at the article again, it does specifically say american console market. If nintendo sold 3M consoles in 1987 that would mean 428k sms, 685k ataris, and 171k intellivisions. Sounds a little high for intellivision but the nes number might be rounded up as well. And the atari xegs should be part of the atari numbers as well.

[jhd]

Sounds a little high for intellivision but the nes number might be rounded up as well.

 

Remember that these are "best guess" estimates made by industry analysts; no reasonable company is going to publicly release their actual sales figures. Consequently, the published figures are not going to be 100% accurate. At the same time, this is essentially the only information available.

[Atari Pogostick]

Looking at the article again, it does specifically say american console market. If nintendo sold 3M consoles in 1987 that would mean 428k sms, 685k ataris, and 171k intellivisions. Sounds a little high for intellivision but the nes number might be rounded up as well. And the atari xegs should be part of the atari numbers as well.

 

No, that may actually be right. Because 7800 would sell 1 million by June 88, so 685k Ataris during this time in 87 makes some sense.

[Atari Pogostick]

Bump

 

I hope there's some guys with old magazine scans out there that can add to the topic because I'm really curious about how well these old guys did in the post-crash period.

Also I do have one question, someone in this thread said that Atari claimed 25 Million 2600's sold in 1988. Wouldn't that means the Atari 2600 sold 5 million from 1988-1992? That seems rather far fetched doesn't it? It's an interesting though though, people really did love that old machine.

 

By they way, wasn't there a guy named curt who posted the 7800 stuff? Didn't he post 2600 hardware numbers as well? I tried searching but the results arent coming up correctly.

[mr_me]

When you are selling them for $40 each it doesn't mean much. In the early mid 2000s they made these cheap Intellivision direct to tv units. They actually sold about four million of them, more Intellivisions than Mattel sold.

[+Atari_Warlord]

I think the 25–30 million 2600’s was lifetime sales, not for one year.

[Atari Pogostick]

I think the 25–30 million 2600’s was lifetime sales, not for one year.

 

A user before has mentioned that the 2600 sold 25 million by 1988. Since 30 million is commonly cited as the final LTD for the 2600, and Atari sadly discontinued the 2600 in 92, i figured that would mean the 2600 sold 5 million between 1988-1992 which is an incredible number for a machine that old!

[atarilovesyou]

The thing is...are video game magazines, non-trade periodicals anyway, really what goes for cited works? Like numbers of sales found in a copy of EGM is to be taken as verified fact? Just seems wrong to me. I certaimly wouldn't cite a gamer mag of any kind to verify business facts and figures, unless it was an interview from a company spokesperson. That's just me.

[+x=usr(1536)]

The thing is...are video game magazines, non-trade periodicals anyway, really what goes for cited works? Like numbers of sales found in a copy of EGM is to be taken as verified fact? Just seems wrong to me. I certaimly wouldn't cite a gamer mag of any kind to verify business facts and figures, unless it was an interview from a company spokesperson. That's just me.

 

Always go with what Wikipedia has to say. It's an unquestionable paragon of accuracy, rooted in methodical and analytical research of the highest calibre.

[Eltigro]

I think we should gather up all the sales receipts we can find and count them. That's the only sure-fire way to know a unit was sold. There's probably dozens!

[mr_me]

Stuff on wikepedia should have a noted reference you can check. For example 30 million atari 2600, commonly mentioned, probably comes from Wikipedia which has this page as its reference. https://web.archive.org/web/20071215013031/http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/game_consoles/source/3.htm

That page itself references a book called "2004 video game price guide". https://www.amazon.com/2004-Video-Game-Price-Guide/dp/1581125534

And that may be a questionable resource.

 

Company press releases should be reliable, although I figure it might suffer from a bit of rounding up. Reputable newspaper and magazine articles from the time should be okay as well. Why shouldn't a video game magazine be reputable. Any recent articles should be questioned since they may be referencing poor wikipedia data.