Console Failure Rates (by eBay)

[pcwzrd13]

So I was browsing eBay today and decided to see what percentage of used consoles for sale on eBay are broken. Here is the percentage of broken consoles for sale by system (rounded off to the nearest percent):

Xbox 360: 46%
Playstation 3: 35%
Xbox: 25%
Playstation: 17%
Dreamcast: 15%
Saturn: 14%
Genesis: 14%
Playstation 2: 13%
Gamecube: 11%
Nintendo Wii: 8%
NES: 8%
Super Nintendo: 7%
Nintendo 64: 4%

These statistics seem pretty spot on as far as I can tell. You gotta give the Big N some credit! They know how to make a reliable console!

[brourke228]

I'm surprised NES isn't higher up. The cartridge slots are always failing on front-loader version.

[pcwzrd13]

I'm surprised NES isn't higher up. The cartridge slots are always failing on front-loader version.

I still have my original front-loading NES and it works perfectly. Although I did have the cartridge slot replaced about 10 years ago. It still worked before that but it would require a lot of cartridge blowing! I never tried cleaning it though so it's possible that it was just dirty.

[Vampyre Mike]

Considering (and according to Adam Koralik) that the Dreamcast took a step down in quality from the Saturn, the difference in busted consoles seems negligible. But also, the Saturn has had a longer time to break at this point. So maybe not.

[rooster]

It's amazing how neatly ordered the systems are, not by generation/age, but by company: Microsoft is the most failure-prone, then Sony, then Sega, then Nintendo. Although part of what sets PS360 at the top would be that many people would still buy one of those current-gen systems in spite of some problem, while maybe 3 or 4 people on the planet would want to buy a broken N64.

[pcwzrd13]

It's amazing how neatly ordered the systems are, not by generation/age, but by company: Microsoft is the most failure-prone, then Sony, then Sega, then Nintendo.

Yeah I know! It's obvious that this isn't a very good way of getting accurate failure rates but I'd say this list came out pretty darn accurate! Ask anyone to rank consoles in terms of reliability and it would probably be very close to this!

[FightingVipers]

Considering the oldest Saturns are 19 now they are not doing bad at all if thats the failure rate.
Microsoft doesnt suprise me, the early 360s where junk, although mine has never given me an issue and its an early one.
The first gen XBOX its main problem is the dvd drive they are prone to failure,otherwise its pretty solid, i have 2 one is perfect otherone doesnt always read gamediscs.

[everynewday84]

Could it be that those older systems tend to get tossed when they bite it? Huh huh?