Sega Genesis – 43.644 million
Originally released in Japan in 1988, a couple of years before the SNES, the Sega Genesis, or Sega MegaDrive everywhere other than North America, is the home of many huge Sega franchises. The best selling game on the system was Sonic the Hedgehog (15 million), followed by Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (6 million). The 43 million unit figure includes all versions of the console, throughout the world.
The 16-bit console was the third Sega home console and sales were quite slow following its release. This was partially thanks to the fact that Nintendo released Super Mario Bros 3 in early October 1988 which overshadowed the release of the Genesis a week later. Sales picked up over the following years, as it released in other territories, reaching over 43 million.
