Nintendo vs Sega vs Sony vs Microsoft: The Complete History of the Console Wars

In 1991, picking Nintendo or Sega could decide your entire personality for the next five years. So how did a few moving dots on a TV turn into a 50-year battle involving Mario, Sonic, Master Chief, Spider-Man and hundreds of millions of consoles? This is the complete story of the console wars — from the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey and Pong, through the 1983 crash, Nintendo's comeback, "Genesis does what Nintendon't," the arrival of PlayStation and Xbox, the PS2's record-breaking run, the Wii's motion-control revolution, and the Switch — all the way to the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026. And at the end, we answer the question every school bus argued about: who actually won? 👍 If you enjoyed this, like the video and subscribe for more deep dives like this one. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open: picking a side 1:14 1972: The Magnavox Odyssey & Pong 2:04 The cartridge era: Channel F & Atari 2600 3:07 1983: The North American crash 4:04 Nintendo's kingdom: Famicom & NES 5:16 Sega strikes back: Master System & Genesis 6:48 The 16-bit war: SNES vs Genesis 8:12 The handheld front: Game Boy vs Game Gear 8:49 Enter PlayStation (vs Saturn & N64) 10:49 Dreamcast: Sega's last stand 11:38 The PS2 era: PS2, GameCube & Xbox 13:14 Pocket wars: DS vs PSP 14:00 The HD wars: Xbox 360 vs PS3 15:23 Enter the Wii 16:15 The Wii U stumble 16:46 PS4 vs Xbox One 17:49 The Switch 18:47 The war today: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 20:42 So... who won?