Game Boy Retrospective: The Handheld That Lost The Spec War And Won Everything Else

The Game Boy lost the spec war and won everything else. The Atari Lynx arrived at the same time with more power, and the Sega Game Gear followed a year later. Even so, Nintendo's handheld cost much less and ran for 10 to 30 hours on four AA batteries, so it outsold both of them anyway. (Four shades of green against full color, and the green won. Never underestimate people who just want the batteries to last.)

Nintendo's president expected 25 million sales in three years. Instead the Game Boy sold 32 million in that time, and Tetris did a lot of the lifting. It came in the box everywhere except Japan and became the best-selling game on the system.

Key facts

Released

April 21, 1989 in Japan, July 31, 1989 in North America, September 28, 1990 in EuropeSource

Launch price

¥12,500 in Japan, US$89.95 in North AmericaSource

Units sold

118.69 million together with the Game Boy Color, 64.42 million of them monochrome models sold before the Color arrivedSource

Best-selling game

Tetris, over 30 million copiesSource

Best-selling series

Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, more than 46 million copies togetherSource

Designed by

Gunpei Yokoi and Nintendo R&D1Source

Power

Four AA batteries, 10 to 30 hours of playSource

Screen

Four shades with a pea-green tint and no backlightSource

Discontinued

2003Source

How a cheaper, greener handheld won

Gunpei Yokoi modeled the Game Boy on his own Game & Watch line, and the project spent three years in development. In 1987 Hiroshi Yamauchi asked for a successor to Game & Watch priced under ¥10,000. However, the cost of the display killed that target, so the Game Boy went on sale for ¥12,500 instead.

Tetris was not even ready for the Japanese launch. It was finished in time for North America, though, and Henk Rogers, who had the rights, convinced Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa to make it the pack-in game instead of Super Mario Land. His argument was that Mario mostly appealed to young boys while Tetris would appeal to everyone. He was right, annoyingly. On top of that, the Link Cable let two players go head to head in real time, which turned a puzzle game into a grudge match.

Meanwhile the hardware barely changed, and yet the sales kept coming. The Game Boy Pocket finally sharpened the screen and dropped the green tint, while the backlit Game Boy Light never left Japan. Then Pokémon made the aging handheld a bestseller again, and it helped keep Nintendo afloat during the troubled N64 years. As a result, when the Game Boy line was discontinued in 2003, it was the best-selling game console of all time. As of 2025 it still sits fourth, behind the Nintendo DS, the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo Switch.

The best Game Boy games

Ranked by how often players recommend them, with picks other players backed counting extra. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening takes #1, and Tetris is second.

Every Game Boy list

Game Boy retrospectives

Game Boy features

Handhelds for Game Boy games

Almost every emulation handheld plays Game Boy games well, so pick one for its shape and screen. The best vertical ones copy the original's shape.