Report: Consoles sold over 1.56 billion units since Atari 2600 in 1977

According to a new graphic from Learn Bonds, the console and handheld hardware market has sold over 1.56 billion units since the Atari 2600's release in 1977. But some of the numbers are off.

So just how many consoles, Gameboys, Game Gears, and other handhelds have been sold to date? The latest findings from Learn Bonds give us ballpark figures of how 25 platforms sold across multiple geneartions, but there's lots of caveats.

Fist, some of the data is erroneous. The PlayStation 4, for example, has sold 110.4 million units to date, not 109.86 million. And the PS2's numbers from Sony are at 155 million, not 157 million. Other mix-ups include the 3DS' numbers, which at the time of writing sit at 77 23 million, not 75 million. Wii U sales are also slightly inflated--Nintendo's figures sit at 13.56 million.

Secondly, the data is based off of VG Chartz, which relies on estimates and has been criticized for reporting wrong figures.

Still though this is an interesting approximation of how each system stacks up against one another. It's certainly depressing to see the Dreamcast, one of the most innovative systems of all time, drop to the very bottom of the list.