How Much Did the Average Game Sell in 1990? Unpacking the Complexities of Retro Game Sales
Determining the average sales figures for video games in 1990 is surprisingly complex. Unlike today, where sales data is meticulously tracked and widely reported, reliable comprehensive data from that era is scarce and fragmented. Several factors contribute to this difficulty:
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Diverse Platforms: 1990 saw a multitude of gaming platforms, including the NES, SNES (launching late in the year), Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and various arcade systems. Sales figures varied wildly across these platforms. A blockbuster NES title might have vastly outperformed a similarly-reviewed Genesis game due to the larger installed base of NES consoles.
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Lack of Centralized Tracking: There wasn't a single, universally accepted system for tracking video game sales. Data came from different publishers, retailers, and market research firms, each employing different methodologies. This lack of standardization makes comparing sales figures across different games and platforms incredibly challenging.
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Regional Differences: Sales varied significantly by region. A game hugely successful in North America might have performed poorly in Europe or Japan, and vice versa. Aggregating global data accurately would require painstaking research across multiple markets.
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Definition of "Average": The term "average" itself is ambiguous. Are we averaging across all games released, regardless of their success? Or are we focusing on the average sales of only successful titles? The result will vary drastically based on this definition.
What Data We Can Access:
While precise average sales figures remain elusive, we can glean some insights from examining successful titles of the era. Games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, and various NES role-playing games achieved significant sales, though the exact numbers remain debated among historians. These titles sold in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of units. However, many games released in 1990 were significantly less successful, possibly selling only a few thousand copies.
How Much Did Popular Games Sell? (Examples, Not Averages)
Instead of a broad average, which is unreliable, let's look at some examples to illustrate the sales landscape:
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High-End Success: Games achieving million-unit sales were considered major hits. However, even among these top performers, precise figures are often difficult to verify.
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Mid-Range Success: Many games likely sold in the tens or hundreds of thousands of units, representing moderate success but not reaching blockbuster status.
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Low-End Sales: A significant portion of games released in 1990 likely sold poorly, failing to recoup development costs. This is a common phenomenon in any industry, especially with the high volume of releases in the gaming industry at the time.
What About Independent Research?
Some independent researchers and market analysts have attempted to reconstruct sales data from 1990, but their findings often vary and are subject to inherent limitations due to the data scarcity mentioned earlier. While these efforts offer valuable insights, they can't provide a definitive answer to the question of average game sales.
Conclusion: A Challenging Question
Ultimately, pinpointing the average sales figure for a video game in 1990 is a challenging task. The lack of readily available, reliable data from that era means that any figure offered would be at best an educated estimation, and likely highly inaccurate. Instead of focusing on an elusive average, understanding the diverse sales landscape and the success range of individual titles provides a more nuanced and historically accurate picture of the 1990 video game market.
