I am fascinated by the N64 in its later years. By the turn of the millenium, the N64 was beginning to age much more than its rivals on the market. Carts and single stick controllers was something of the past, yet Nintendo had to hold on for another 2 years in a fierce market dominated by disc based consoles and new emerging technologies.
First let's look at the worldwide hardware sales to give us a good indication of how strong the N64 was at this time. Below you can see the lifetime sales directly from Nintendo on their quarterly financial reports.
| 6 months (Apr00-Sep00) | 0.80 | 30.37 | |
| 6 months (Oct00-Mar01) | 2.05 | 32.42 | |
| 2001 fiscal year sales (ending Mar 31, 2001) | 2.85 | 32.42 | |
| 6 months (Apr01-Sep01) | 0.29 | 32.71 | |
| 6 months (Oct01-Mar02) | 0.21 | 32.92 | |
| 2002 fiscal year sales (ending Mar 31, 2002) | 0.50 | 32.92 |
While regional sales data for consoles doesn't exist from Nintendo, Famitsu do a good job at getting an approximate numbers based on retail information. Here are the figures below:
| Year | Sales | LTD |
| 1996 | 933.480 | 933.480 |
| 1997 | 919.269 | 1.852.749 |
| 1998 | 1.208.070 | 3.058.817 |
| 1999 | 1.131.605 | 4.190.422 |
| 2000 | 236.350 | 4.426.772 |
| 2001 | 78.000 | 4.504.772 |
| 2002 | 8.000 | 4.514.775 |
While there's no concrete information on the European data, I did take a look at the retail situation regarding the N64 here in the UK. Looking at Specialist Reserved, the console was still being sold up until August 2002 for £99.99. Major retailer GAME held on till Christmas 2002 selling the console bundled with Mario 64 for £39.99.
By 2003 retailers just wanted the stock gone, and places like Toys R Us had dropped the N64 and Mario 64 bundle down to £25. After that no major retailer was stocking the N64, and if they did, just wanted the last remaining stock gone whilst they focused on the new generation of consoles.
Software
While the hardware was really starting to show its age, it was inevitable for the sales to drastically slow down; especially with the release of the GameCube. However what software sales provides is insight into how engaged the current user base is.
First starting at the year 2000 we can see that there were roughly 79 titles (it's hard to find concrete data) that were released worldwide, with 30 of them releasing in Japan. Sales figures are as follows:
References:
While the hardware was really starting to show its age, it was inevitable for the sales to drastically slow down; especially with the release of the GameCube. However what software sales provides is insight into how engaged the current user base is.
First starting at the year 2000 we can see that there were roughly 79 titles (it's hard to find concrete data) that were released worldwide, with 30 of them releasing in Japan. Sales figures are as follows:
| Date | Title | Publisher | Developer | Price (Yen) | US sales | Initial sales | Cumulative sales |
| Jan-28 | Virtual Wrestling 2-Inheriting the Royal Road- | Asmik Ace Entertainment | Aki | 7329 | 18991 | 37516 | |
| Resident Evil 2 | Capcom | Angel Studios | 8190 | 326397 | 8601 | 8601 | |
| 2-Apr | Top Gear Rally 2 | KEMCO | Saffire Software | 7329 | 67317 | ||
| Mar-17 | TOP GEAR HYPER-BIKE | KEMCO | snowblind | 7329 | 30938 | ||
| Mar-24 | Kirby the Star 64 | Nintendo | HAL Research Institute | 7140 | 541600 | 245508 | 882228 |
| Mar-31 | Itoi Shigesato's No.1 definitive bass fishing! | Nintendo | HAL Research Institute | 7140 | 15226 | 15226 | |
| Gauntlet Legend | Epoch | Atari | 7140 | 357502 | |||
| Apr-27 | |||||||
| The Legend of Zelda: The Mask of Mujura | Nintendo | 6090 | 1632897 | 314414 | |||
| 601539 | |||||||
| Apr-29 | Jikkyou powerful professional baseball 2000 | Konami | Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka | 8190 | 99621 | 266028 | |
| Jun-23 | Excite Bike 64 | Nintendo | Left Field | 7140 | 544903 | 36999 | 76979 |
| Jul-21 | Mario tennis 64 | Nintendo | Camelot | 7140 | 669958 | 213422 | 969892 |
| 8-Nov | Mario story | Nintendo | Intelligent Systems | 7140 | 499860 | 118321 | 362024 |
| Sep-15 | WrestleMania 2000 | Asmik Ace Entertainment | Aki | 9240 | 998632 | ||
| Sep-27 | A mysterious dungeon-like Shiren 2 demon attack! Shiren Castle | Nintendo | Chunsoft | 7140 | 117982 | 238337 | |
| Oct-21 | Perfect dark | Nintendo | Rare | 6090 | 1297490 | 34912 | 76873 |
| 11-Oct | Custom robo v2 | Nintendo | noise | 7140 | 62558 | 264079 | |
| Nov-21 | Sin and Punishment-Successor of the Earth- | Nintendo | Treasure | 6090 | 22536 | 22536 | |
| Nov-22 | Rockman DASH steel adventure spirit | Capcom | 7140 | 127488 | |||
| Nov-27 | Banjo and Kazooie Adventure 2 | Nintendo | Rare | 7140 | 697963 | 45871 | 194173 |
| 12-Jul | Mario Party 3 | Nintendo | Hudson | 6090 | 624468 | 221240 | 846452 |
| Dec-14 | Pokemon Stadium Gold and Silver | Nintendo | HAL Research Institute | 7140 | 876823 | 221240 | 779043 |
Fast forward to 2001 and we see a huge drop off. Only 13 titles were released worldwide with only 6 of them being released in Japan (Mickey Mouse racing launched in 2000, but 2001 in Japan)
In its final year of 2002 the software for the N64 is practically non-existent. The only release to make it was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 which released exclusively in the US. Unfortunately no sales data can be found for this release, but I doubt it was it very high.
Again there's not too much to find on data found in Europe. Simply Games had games for sale up until the end of 2003, whilst Game only lasted till 2002 with the only title being sold near the end was Batman of the Future - Return of the Joker.
Could the N64 survive to fiscal year 2003?
So looking back, we can see worldwide data stops at the end of the fiscal year in March of 2002. The console from the 1st April 2001 to the end of March 2002 had only sold 50,000 consoles worldwide. In Japan, the console had only sold around 8,000 consoles in the whole of 2002 just in Japan. In the UK the console was still being sold throughout 2002, with stores nuking the N64's existence the following year.
With Japan sales going from 78,000 to just 8,000 in one year, shows the N64 had run out of steam. Retailers had begun to lump the console alongside the dead Dreamcast in sub £50 sales for the remainder of the year. Despite some software still selling 6 figures in Japan, the lack of any releases in Europe and Japan in 2002 really hurt the console.
The console had a good run and 2000 proved big hitters like Perfect Dark and Zelda still had the muscle to move the aging console past 1 million sales. With the GameCube struggling in 2002, especially here in the UK, Nintendo probably wanted to have all their focus on the GameCube - and rightfully so.
| Date | Title | Publisher | Developer | Price (Yen) | US sales | Initial sales | Cumulative sales |
| Jan-21 | Mickey Racing Challenge USA | Nintendo | Rare | 7140 | 303604 | 17989 | 78435 |
| Mar-29 | Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Basic Version 2001 | Konami | Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka | 7140 | 24058 | 112008 | |
| 4-Jun | Hamster Story 64 | Culture brain | 6804 | ||||
| Apr-14 | Animal Crossing | Nintendo | 6090 | 36263 | 213800 | ||
| 8-Oct | Derby Stallion 64 | media Factory | Parity bit | 7140 | 48493 | 72687 |
In its final year of 2002 the software for the N64 is practically non-existent. The only release to make it was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 which released exclusively in the US. Unfortunately no sales data can be found for this release, but I doubt it was it very high.
Again there's not too much to find on data found in Europe. Simply Games had games for sale up until the end of 2003, whilst Game only lasted till 2002 with the only title being sold near the end was Batman of the Future - Return of the Joker.
So looking back, we can see worldwide data stops at the end of the fiscal year in March of 2002. The console from the 1st April 2001 to the end of March 2002 had only sold 50,000 consoles worldwide. In Japan, the console had only sold around 8,000 consoles in the whole of 2002 just in Japan. In the UK the console was still being sold throughout 2002, with stores nuking the N64's existence the following year.
With Japan sales going from 78,000 to just 8,000 in one year, shows the N64 had run out of steam. Retailers had begun to lump the console alongside the dead Dreamcast in sub £50 sales for the remainder of the year. Despite some software still selling 6 figures in Japan, the lack of any releases in Europe and Japan in 2002 really hurt the console.
The console had a good run and 2000 proved big hitters like Perfect Dark and Zelda still had the muscle to move the aging console past 1 million sales. With the GameCube struggling in 2002, especially here in the UK, Nintendo probably wanted to have all their focus on the GameCube - and rightfully so.
- N64 sales https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Nintendo_64
- Famitsu sales: https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/hardware-by-platform/nintendo-64
- 1999 - 2001 Software sales figures in Japan https://web.archive.org/web/20040607181635/http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~hokora/n64db99j.html#n64database01
- Last time the N64 was recorded on the website https://web.archive.org/web/20031202030557/http://www.simplygames.com:80/hires.index.asp
- 13th August 2002 - Last time N64 was on sale for £99.99 on their website
https://web.archive.org/web/20020813214309fw_/http://www.simplygames.com:80/hires.nintendo64body.asp - N64 Software: https://web.archive.org/web/20031026160017/http://www.ukn64.com:80/
- N64 Hardware https://web.archive.org/web/20010801212902/http://serverpool.reserve.co.uk:80/listings/specialsearch.php?ty=n64h
- https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!search/dreamcast$20Toys$20R$20Us$20UK$202003/uk.media.dvd/TYZlHszNQX8 ["OT:(BA) N64 for 25 quid!"]
- https://web.archive.org/web/20021225125707/http://www.game.uk.com/review.asp?tab=&rev_id=138700
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