Console Tier List: Best Consoles Of All Time [Ranked]

Video Game consoles have always been the easiest way to play video games. There is a much better medium called the PC to play your favorite games but looking at the current market scenario, gaming consoles are the best bang for your buck. Our Tier List will help you choose the best video gaming console for your needs.

S-Tier Consoles

The S Tier consists of the best consoles of all time that are highly regarded by critics, gamers, and the mass media. They have shattered sales records and are still being sold in the third-party market at a good rate. You can keep these consoles as an item to sell at a profit. They are at the top position on the best consoles list.

A-Tier Consoles

The A Tier of our tier list consists of video gaming consoles that were very good but fell short of the S Tier. By no means, they were useless or have no value in the market today and they are legendary in their own right. They just lack a few sales, and a little good marketing or initial blunders that deprives them of the S Tier. They are at the second position.

B-Tier Consoles

These consoles are average and they hold up well. You can play them and get good use out of them or you can just skip them altogether. But investing in them is not that bad of an idea as they do have a bunch of good and bad titles and it is easy to point out the good ones and have tons of fun with them.

C-Tier Consoles

The consoles in the C tier of our tier list are below average. They did not sell well but are on the C Tier because they did something creative but weren’t able to innovate. They do deserve acknowledgment for this.

D-Tier Consoles

The consoles in this tier are the lowest-ranked and there are plenty of reasons for it. First of all the main reasons were the health hazard they posed, the terrible specs for the time and the dreadful marketing campaigns. These all add up with secondary reasons like a bad collection of games and not understanding the demand of the customers well.

An example would be the virtual boy. We would have included it in the C Tier because of the creativity it had but it lacked innovation. We can ignore the part of innovation but the serious health threat it posed couldn’t be forgiven. Nintendo had a blunder with this one and had to incur a big loss. Thus consoles like the Virtual Boy are part of the worst tier of our tier list.

Nintendo Console Tier List

Nintendo is one of the biggest companies in the history of video gaming. They defined, refined, and reintroduced the console gaming that we know. Before it was called home gaming but over the years it has been called console gaming. The prime of Nintendo started with the NES. 

Here are all the consoles Nintendo ranked for you in tiers.

S-Tier Nintendo Consoles

These are the most iconic consoles from Nintendo in our opinion. The defined the console and has played a big role in why and where Nintendo stands today as a company.

SNES/NES

These include the ones like SNES and NES that gave a new definition to video gaming and cemented the efforts of the likes of ATARI by truly bringing video gaming from arcades to the homes.

DS and Gameboy

Then there are the likes of DS and Gameboy which are perhaps the two most iconic handheld video gaming consoles and were sold in millions around the globe till this day people are buying it in the second-hand market. 

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 in our opinion is one underrated console in current gamers and this has not been given the plaudits it deserves it was a truly unique system with some unforgettable games. Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 6, Super Smash Bros, and Pokemon Stadium, are some games that you just can’t miss.

A-Tier Nintendo Consoles

The A Tier of our Tier List consists of consoles that are very good and certainly, you can’t skip them because of these reasons. They have little flaws here and there but are not worthy of being on the flawless S Tier.

You might be interested: Risk of Rain 2 Tier List

B-Tier Nintendo Consoles

The Weakest Tier of our Tier List has two consoles and both were a commercial disaster for Nintendo. The reason the B Tier is the worst tier of Nintendo Console is that it is a very big company and it has let down fans very few times.

Wii U

The Wii U per se was not that bad a console but the strategy of Nintendo let it down. First of all, they waited for more than a year to drop any major titles, that were worth paying for a new console. This makes us question their release date and my conclusion is that they prematurely released the console on the other hand the arrival of the iPad and the touch screen handheld devices also dented Wii U’s sale.

Virtual Boy

Virtual Boy as a concept was way ahead of its time but the implementation was not right. It is considered the worst failure of Nintendo in its grand history. Gunpei Yokoi was the developer of the console and he is referred to as the father of all handheld video gaming consoles him going wrong was seriously a big dent in his illustrious career. 

Xbox Console Tier List 

I feel Xbox has always been a company with an identity crisis and hasn’t cemented itself like Sony’s Playstation or Nintendo. But over the years with the right management decisions and the bad launch of the Xbox One they have bounced back and they are trying to make a brand image for themselves that is distinct and ends the identity crisis once and for all. 

S-Tier Xbox Consoles

These consoles shaped Xbox’s history and for us, they were fair to the gamers and they deserve to be on the S Tier. On our main tier list, the Xbox Series X/S were on a lower-tier but over here they are on the S Tier as the context is different. 

Xbox Series X/S

First, let’s talk about the Xbox Series X/S. These two consoles have proved that Microsoft finally wants to improve its image. In the last generation after the bad launch event of Xbox One, Microsoft was losing its grip and was portrayed as a money-grabbing company not made for gamers. But with the release of the Xbox Series S for budget gamers and udner$300 you can play games at 1440p they truly showed to the world that they are ready to be more gamer-friendly.

Xbox

I would have put the original Xbox on the S Tier just because of its dashboard alone, just kidding! This console was the start of all this. From the Rock popping up, in the launch ceremony to so many other surprises. It was a powerful machine and would have blown PS2 out of the water if only it had the third-party support that the Playstation had. The data was stored in blocks on the console and it was an awesome concept. The memory didn’t seem to run out very easily and to this day it can be used as a great emulation machine because of its insane memory.

A-Tier Xbox Consoles

The A Tier of the Xbox Tier List includes only one console, and that is the Xbox 360. This console is the darling of many gamers and it might offend many to see it in this tier but there are good reasons for it. Let’s discuss them.

Xbox 360

The console was released in 2005 and became the talk of the town instantly. With the HDMI and the new super DVD concept, it was loved by the masses until we saw the manufacturing faults in the consoles. It was a major blow for Microsoft and the fanbase. For a majority of its life cycle was plagued with issues until the last version the Slim and the e-slim versions were released.

B-Tier Xbox Consoles

The B Tier includes one console and it is perhaps the worse console of Microsoft’s history in regards to the gap it increased between Sony and Microsoft in the gaming industry as well as the dent in the image of Xbox it had. Let’s talk about it.

Xbox One

When you are trying to be way ahead of the time you are more often than not bound to fail. Maybe the vision that Microsoft had with the Xbox One might not have been particularly bad in today’s era but at the time it was the equivalent of suicide. The launch event of Xbox One is probably one of the biggest disasters in the history of video gaming and on that very day, the console war of the last generation was lost.

PlayStation Console Tier List

The undisputed king of video game consoles is the Playstation and all of us perhaps have owned one at some point in life. With the majestic exclusives, the mascots, and the aura associated with these consoles from Sony, it is part of our childhood and it shaped our adulthood as well. This is the PlayStation Tier list where we rank the best Playstation Consoles for you.

S-Tier PlayStation Consoles

The S Tier includes one console, the one which shattered all records and is the benchmark for all consoles to this date. The Playstation 2, was a craze and if you didn’t own one then you were missing out. Let’s know why.

PlayStation 2

There must be genuine reasons for this to be considered the greatest console of all time by people and it is backed by its numbers, it is the most selling console of all time. More than a billion copies of games were sold on this console and the library of games is unmatched no console to this date has matched that gigantic library of games. 

A-Tier PlayStation Consoles

The A Tier includes two consoles that hold a special place in the heart of video gamers. They are very good in their own right and some might argue they deserved a place in the highest tier but I had a different opinion and it was that no matter what both do, they just couldn’t reach the heights of the Playstation 2. Yes one started it all and the other gave Sony a lead they can never forget but it is still a tad below the Playstation 2.

B-Tier PlayStation Consoles

This was a tough one, we have two consoles on this tier list of our Playstation Tier List. The first one is the PlayStation 5 which is fair enough, the sample size is less to derive a meaningful conclusion with respect to the Playstation 5 but the Playstation 3 had made me indifferent for a long period of time and after thoughtful consideration, I included it on the B Tier. The B Tier doesn’t mean bad in this case and it can be placed in the upper tiers because it was a very tough decision on my part.

PlayStation 3

First of all, we all know now why the Playstation 3 was one of the best and most loved consoles of all time and thus I will come straight to the point of why it is placed low on our modern tier list and the major reasons are big. First is the security breach that was associated with the PlayStation 3, for over 2 years the PSN was constantly having issues and it was down for 1.5 months due to a hacking scare. Imagine losing your personal data? Very scary, I picked an Xbox 360 at that time over the PlayStation 3 because of this reason.

PlayStation 5

The Playstation 5 is a promising console, that is yet to be unleashed. The only true current-gen that we have seen so far is the Horizon Forbidden west and the PlayStation is slowly doing tweaks to reach a good level. There are games expected to be released for it and it has sold well despite this and the global shortage due to the disruption in the supply chain due to COVID 19. This is a console that we can’t really rate so far thus placing it on this tier is a safe bet.

Tier List Criteria

We have taken many factors into play before coming up with the tier list. The historical figures, the creativity and innovation, the number of consoles sold, and above all the quality of video games released on the consoles before ranking them. The important factor that stands out as gamers for us was to check if a company was sincere to the gamers or not.

It is a very important factor for most gamers, as many gamers have an emotional attachment to the video gaming companies and their exploitation is not welcomed. We have applied the same criteria on all modern tier lists above and the old consoles tier list and came up with the best information for you guys.

Why Trust Us?

The Console Tier List at Exputer is fully researched and input was taken from veteran gamers, collectors, hardcore gamers, fanboys, and also casual gamers. Then we came up with this tier list. Our team has been playing consoles since they found out what video gaming is and we had many people who were familiar with and had first-hand experience with the majority of the consoles on the tier list.