As hardware improves, so do the components that afford the console its life and power. Every piece of video game technology that we've ever laid our eyes on was built, at least ideally, with a policy to endure and provide fun for the whole family, but aesthetics, form, and function also factor into the equation. Among these considerations is the console's weight.
While generally not a consideration after taking up its chosen roost in the entertainment center (barring some obvious considerations, like in the case of the Nintendo Switch), it's nonetheless interesting to see how these consoles stack up in terms of heft. These weights are courtesy of Dimensions.Guide. Certain weights have been rounded up for consistency.
10 Wii U (Full console): 4.4 lbs
The Wii U was one part game reader, one part tablet. In its special case, you couldn't have one without the other. They're inseparable and, like inseparable things, they probably could have used some time away from each other. A fellowship of Nintendo diehards fell in love with the virtual console choices, but most were left slighted at the fact that it was barely more powerful than the Wii. Suggestive advertisement even made it seem like it had more to do with the Wii than it really did.
Weighing in at a pound, some people liked how the tablet felt in their hand, and some people didn't. Overall, the Wii U was truly the scatterbrained nephew of the family.
9 Atari 2600: 4.6 lbs
Poor, poor Atari 2600. What once had been the mighty champion of household gaming ended up being the laughingstock of the entire nation. The haunting remnants of the video game crash in 1983 rendered Atari a broken and loose associate to its own brand. That still holds up today as everyone has just about let Atari decompose with no one to lament it. Though, perhaps not all is lost.
The Atari 2600 was still a roaring success and cemented gaming standards to be followed for generations. It's only a little bit heavier than the Wii U.
8 PS2 (Original Model): 4.85 lbs
In one fell swoop, Sony had proven themselves as able-bodied architects and not simply side street bullies. They held the best-selling console honors with the Ps1, and they weren't about to give that up. Released in the Y2k tinged year of 2000, the PS2 became the apparatus of entertainment -- DVDs, last generation support, and the starting ground for many amazing series to come.
Weighing in at 4.85 lbs, it's somewhere in between a human brain and a bag of sugar. With a library such as the PS2's, those dopamine dials are going to be flying off the charts.
7 NES: 5 lbs
Maybe a droid from a Star Wars B-roll, or maybe a vessel to another world, the NES sufficed as a not-so-attractive set piece for your living room. Granted, you don't judge a book by its cover, and nobody really did. It brought in the audience that Nintendo's been kindly catering to ever since.
Not weighing much more than the PS2 (even though there are a good 15 years of separation) it falls in line with the same items -- sugar, spice, and everything nice.
6 GameCube: 5.3 lbs
Probably the most colorful console to date, you could build a full-on Rubix cube using panels from all the offered palettes. Purple, orange, silver, black, and emerald (if you were lucky). The convenient handle allowed for lunchbox type holding, meaning you could take the GameCube nearly anywhere you wanted in just one hand.
Though technically not a cube, it was the closest to a compact system you could get at the time without the hand-stretching width of the NES, PS2, or Xbox.
5 PS4 Pro: 7.3 lbs
With the advent of 4K gaming, Sony tacked on some extra gadgetry that made up for the difference between its base console and its respective "Pro" console. The PS4 Pro is a pound heavier than the PS4 and has an added console deck on top of where you'd insert the disc. A lot of pre-upgrade games were given compatibility patches to get them up to snuff in terms of performance.
To find an equal example, it's about the weight of a newborn baby. So, before you swaddle your new purchase, it might be worth it to decide whether or not you'll be getting much out of it.
4 Xbox 360: 7.7 lbs
The Xbox 360 is very tall and can be seen in either a horizontal or vertical position. It simultaneously has the most amiable and frightening power button of all time. It suited those that wanted self-fulfillment through the feature of creating an Avatar; it featured an achievement system before the PS3's, and people still tout its controller as one of the best. Even though you were paying money for Xbox Live, people saw it as a noble sacrifice for a better experience.
The Xbox baby is also not much heavier than the PS4 Pro one.
3 Xbox One X: 8.4 lbs
Like the PS4 Pro, this was Microsoft's answer to 4K gaming. Coincidingly, it was also their answer to 4K media in general. Whereas the PS4 Pro cannot play 4K Blu-Rays, the Xbox One X can. It is a bit more powerful, a bit more expensive, but backward compatible with 600 Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
In this article's case, viewing it in a weight class, the Xbox One X comes out to about 8.4 lbs, which may be familiar to most families as the weight of a gallon of milk.
2 Xbox: 8.8 lbs
The Xbox was where Microsoft's journey started. It was the chief proprietor of some Sega stars from the Dreamcast era and gave Sony a run for their money. Albeit there were some apples to oranges comparisons, the Xbox offered the ability to play with four players and be part of an online community, which paired nicely for the teens coming off the high of the last generation.
If you like Piña coladas, the Xbox is about the weight of four pineapples.
1 PS3: 11 lbs
The bulkiest piece of technology on the list, the PS3 is in a league of its own. It is two times the weight of the PS2, but two times two doesn't equal three, even four in this case. Comparatively to the Xbox lineage, it's like PlayStation got back from their grandmother's house. Have two of these stacked on each other, and you're suddenly at risk for a hernia.
The PS3 got a bad rep for a lot of other things, such as its narcoleptic and sometimes unresponsive menu interface, its hacking incidents, and being a pain to develop for. History does not look back with kind eyes on the prodigal son, but Sony has certainly learned since then.