The 40 Most Active Console Markets in Graded Video Game Collecting
This report ranks the Top 40 most active console markets in graded video game collecting using the number of current eBay listings of WATA-graded games from each console library as a key indicator.
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Introduction
{Note: For brief introductions to sealed-and-graded video game collecting, see here and here. I also recommend Gamer Stonks for top-notch market analyses and GetTheGreg Games for the friendliest, most helpful flesh-and-blood guide those new to this particular hobby could want.}
Collecting sealed and graded video games began around 2008, when the first game-grading company, VGA, was founded, but it didn’t really take off until the founding of the second such company WATA, in 2018. And when the pandemic hit in early 2020, the cost of graded video games skyrocketed, as presaged by this New York Times report that wrote on rising interest in this collectibles market just days before the pandemic.
Things have since calmed down quite a bit—thankfully, given the preposterous “high” of an only sort-of uncommon mint Super Mario 64 selling for $1.5 million—but I’m still fascinated by the subject as a GenX-er who (a) grew up playing the Atari 2600, NES, and SNES, (b) intermittently went down the gaming rabbit-hole with the PS1 and PS2 some years later, and (c) is interested in video game preservation. Indeed, while there are plenty of collectors, investors, and even speculators in the video game collecting hobby (including its “sealed-and-graded” or “new” sector, its “complete-in-box” or “CIB” or “used” graded sector, and its “ungraded” or “raw” sector), one thing many of these individuals have in common in an interest in ensuring that the physical products that brought joy to so many of us back in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s do not vanish entirely.
And that’s a real risk. If you absolutely adore the Nintendo Entertainment System game library as I do, you might be surprised to learn that many, many games for that system are on right on the cusp of vanishing in used (let alone new) condition. It’s for this reason that even certain complete-in-box NES games—games that have been opened and therefore cannot be deemed new—now fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars at auction, even before they’ve been graded. While of course there’ll always be those who scoff at collecting games on the presumption that the art component of video games is only to be found in their code (in which case it must only be preserved digitally for play on “emulators”), those of us old enough to be a bit saddened to know that video gaming will soon be an all-digital hobby deem the original boxes, manuals, and cartridges for the oldest video game consoles to be works of art in their own right.
All this said, here are the Top 40 video game console markets right now, as measured by the frequency with which WATA-graded artifacts from their libraries are on sale at eBay.
Key: Console Manufacturers
🟧 Atari
🟪 Coleco
⬜️ Intellivision
🟩 Microsoft
🟨 NEC
🟥 Nintendo
⬛️ Sony
🟦 Sega
🟫 SNK
🔳 3DO
🔲 Philips
Top 25 Most Active Console Markets By Number of WATA-Graded Games From Each Console’s Library for Sale at eBay
{with ranking, console, and number of WATA-graded games from that console’s game library on sale at eBay}*
Tier 1 (2000+ Games)
🔰 #01 | 🟥 | NES (2003) Highest Nintendo
Tier 2 (1000+ Games)
🔰 #02 | ⬛️ | PS2 (1230) Highest PlayStation
🔰 #03 | ⬛️ | PS1 (1010)
Tier 3 (750+ Games)
🔰 #04 | 🟥 | N64 (923)
🔰 #05 | 🟥 | SNES (854)
Tier 4 (500+ Games)
🔰 #06 | 🟥 | Wii (678)
🔰 #07 | 🟥 | Gamecube (608)
🔰 #08 | 🟥 | Switch (583)
🔰 #09 | 🟩 | Xbox 360 (573) Highest Xbox
🔰 #10 | 🟦 | Genesis (560) Highest Sega
🔰 #11 | 🟧 | 2600 (504) Highest Atari
Tier 5 (250+ Games)
🔰 #12 | 🟩 | Xbox (498)
🔰 #13 | 🟥 | GBA (385) Highest Handheld
🔰 #14 | ⬛️ | PS4 (320)
🔰 #15 | 🟥 | DS (265)
🔰 #16 | ⬛️ | PS3 (255)
Tier 6 (200+ Games)
🔰 #17 | 🟥 | Wii-U (248)
🔰 #18 | 🟥 | Game Boy (242)
🔰 #19 | 🟥 | Game Boy Color (217)
Tier 7 (100+ Games)
🔰 #20 | 🟦 | Dreamcast (188)
🔰 #21 | 🟦 | Saturn (139)
🔰 #22 | 🟥 | 3DS (134)
Tier 8 (75+ Games)
🔰 #23 | 🟩 | Xbox One (94)
🔰 #24 | 🟦 | Sega CD (84)
🔰 #25 | ⬜️ | Intellivision (75)
All Other Console Markets As Ranked By Number of WATA-Graded Games From Each Console’s Library for Sale at eBay
{with ranking, console, and number of WATA-graded games from that console’s game library on sale at eBay}*
Tier 9 (50+ Games)
🔰 #26 | 🟧 | 7800 (71)
🔰 #27 | ⬛️ | PS5 (50)
Tier 10 (25+ Games)
🔰 #28 | ⬛️ | PSP (47)
🔰 #29 | ⬛️ | Vita (34)
🔰 #30 | 🟦 | 32X (31)
🔰 #31 | 🟧 | 5200 (29)
Tier 11 (10+ Games)
🔰 #32 | 🟪 | ColecoVision (22)
🔰 #33 | 🟦 | Master System (22)
🔰 #34 | 🟨 | Turbografx 16 (20)
🔰 #35 | 🟥 | Virtual Boy (10)
Tier 12 (1+ Games)
🔰 #36 | 🔲 | CDi (4)
🔰 #36 | 🟨 | Turbografx CD (4)
🔰 #38 | 🟩 | Xbox Series X (3)
Consoles Without Markets, As Judged By Number of WATA-Graded Games From Each Console’s Library for Sale at eBay
{with ranking, console, and number of WATA-graded games from that console’s game library on sale at eBay}*
Untiered (0 Games)
🔰 #39 | 🔳 | 3DO (0)
🔰 #39 | 🟫 | Neo Geo CD (0)
*A very small number of video games not from the listed console library may slip through into the sample size for that library due to minor search-parameter issues, but fortunately there is no noticeable statistical impact caused by this. The margin of error for this ranking under 3%.