The NES was the first attempt by Nintendo to infiltrate the domestic video games market. Previous to this forray, Nintendo had released some highly successful arcade games such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers, so they had plenty of relevant experience. As a result, the NES quite simply took the world by storm, with sales in the U.S. and Japan especially strong. In Europe, the NES didn't quite sell as well as the Sega Master System, but it performed adequetly.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the success of the NES is the fact that it brought the world out of the atari inspired video games crash. Atari let everyone program for its machine, and consequently the software market became flooded, and no one was able to make any money. Nintendo beat the crash by liscensing a specific number of 3rd party developers. These developers created titles exclusively for the NES under a rather harsh liscensing agreement that prevented the developers from working with other platforms. As a result, platforms like the sega master system had very limited 3rd party support, particularly in the U.S. , and this contributed to the success of the NES.

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