Last Updated on June 7, 2021
Ever thought about what your top retro game console is? A recent online survey seeking to find the internet’s top consoles might be able to help.
TopRatedCasinos.co.uk investigated which game consoles are considered favourites, relying on social networks to gauge interest in devices. Researchers looked for mentions of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft consoles across Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok. Popularity points were then assigned to indicate popularity.
How the Survey Worked
After compiling the list of devices, researchers created a list of naming variations (e.g. ‘playstation1’, ‘playstationone’, ‘ps1’, ‘psone’, etc.). These were compared on Instagram using its hashtag feature, and the results recorded. Similarly, they were checked on TikTok to find the number of times videos with those hashtags were watched; each variation mentioned in the r/Gaming and r/Games subreddits was also counted. On YouTube, videos were counted if they featured the console, information about it, or came from an official account.
Finally, data was assigned a score of 0-25, while consoles were given a score out of 100 to establish their social popularity overall.
While the Xbox One (2nd) and Series S|X and PlayStation 4 (1st) and PlayStation 5 unsurprisingly did well, a few retro systems also made their presence felt in the survey.,
The PlayStation 3, for example, was the third most tagged console on Instagram,and the second most talked about console on Reddit with 574,572 mentions.
Survey Results
As you can see, Nintendo’s 21st century systems did surprisingly well in the research, with retro game consoles such as the Wii and Wii U scoring well.
TikTok | YouTube | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Playstation 1 | 1408800 | 173500000 | 222139 | 61524758 |
Playstation 2 | 2014100 | 483499600 | 314764 | 32786690 |
Playstation 3 | 9358800 | 362502293 | 574572 | 15748871 |
Playstation 4 | 41380500 | 20102971900 | 951486 | 88204527 |
Playstation 5 | 4401100 | 12302324300 | 157920 | 95483124 |
PSP | 1044300 | 137300000 | 78270 | 15259538 |
Playstation Classic | 50200 | 2578757 | 4269 | 7623364 |
NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) | 2008000 | 151700000 | 162238 | 40015654 |
Nintendo 64 | 876000 | 44100000 | 20465 | 14267577 |
Nintendo gamecube | 986000 | 106500000 | 156283 | 9679757 |
Nintendo Wii | 1798000 | 1854700000 | 529371 | 13370900 |
Nintendo Wii U | 1548000 | 1370200000 | 260259 | 46270435 |
Nintendo Switch | 7200000 | 1700000000 | 83435 | 158377343 |
Nintendo DS | 2017600 | 167400000 | 192764 | 10146516 |
Gameboy | 2714000 | 1961536000 | 117728 | 80368421 |
Nintendo 3DS | 2956000 | 15300000 | 254889 | 15103728 |
Nintendo 2DS | 248400 | 11279200 | 19041 | 17687816 |
Xbox (Original) | 19900 | 769801 | 68925 | 15767028 |
Xbox 360 | 4402000 | 473630400 | 209075 | 18582898 |
Xbox One | 22067300 | 2021434900 | 537848 | 53134485 |
Xbox Series X/S | 2151900 | 1161900000 | 162870 | 45295075 |
The scores above were converted into more readable points, providing researchers with a score out of 25:
TikTok | YouTube | Social Popularity Points | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Playstation 4 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 22.5 | 97.5 |
Xbox One | 23.75 | 22.5 | 22.5 | 18.75 | 87.5 |
Playstation 5 | 18.75 | 23.75 | 10 | 23.75 | 76.25 |
Nintendo Switch | 21.25 | 18.75 | 6.25 | 25 | 71.25 |
Playstation 3 | 22.5 | 12.5 | 23.75 | 8.75 | 67.5 |
Gameboy | 16.25 | 21.25 | 7.5 | 21.25 | 66.25 |
Nintendo Wii U | 8.75 | 17.5 | 18.75 | 17.5 | 62.5 |
Playstation 2 | 12.5 | 15 | 20 | 13.75 | 61.25 |
Xbox 360 | 20 | 13.75 | 15 | 12.5 | 61.25 |
Xbox Series X/S | 15 | 16.25 | 12.5 | 16.25 | 60 |
Playstation 1 | 7.5 | 11.25 | 16.25 | 20 | 55 |
Nintendo Wii | 10 | 20 | 21.25 | 3.75 | 55 |
NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) | 11.25 | 8.75 | 11.25 | 15 | 46.25 |
Nintendo 3DS | 17.5 | 3.75 | 17.5 | 6.25 | 45 |
Nintendo DS | 13.75 | 10 | 13.75 | 2.5 | 40 |
PSP | 6.25 | 7.5 | 5 | 7.5 | 26.25 |
Nintendo gamecube | 5 | 6.25 | 8.75 | 1.25 | 21.25 |
Nintendo 2DS | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1.25 | 11.25 | 17.5 |
Nintendo 64 | 3.75 | 5 | 2.5 | 5 | 16.25 |
Xbox (Original) | 0 | 0 | 3.75 | 10 | 13.75 |
Playstation Classic | 0 | 1.25 | 0 | 0 | 1.25 |
As you can see above, the score for the Nintendo Wii U is particularly surprising, perhaps underlining how much it is admired by Nintendo die hards. Its current role as the must have homebrew platform for Nintendo users probably has some impact on this.
Take a look at the tables above. Did you spot any surprises?

Gaming since 1984, retro gaming since 2004. Contributes to Linux Format magazine and MakeUseOf.com.