Nintendo Is Just a Float in the Video Game Market

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A billion dollars in console revenue in 1988 is 10 times the entire market size for home video game consoles four years before. In 1990, Mario has a higher queue rating among American kids than Mickey Mouse. By the end of 1990, one third of American households, 30 million American households have an NES. This is Nintendo at the peak of their power.

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!

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