{"id":547,"date":"2011-02-01T01:00:34","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pagetable.com\/?p=547"},"modified":"2011-02-01T01:00:34","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T09:00:34","slug":"how-many-commodore-64-were-sold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pagetable.com\/?p=547","title":{"rendered":"How many Commodore 64 computers were really sold?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody doubts that the C64<\/a> was the greatest selling single computer model of all time, it even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, but nobody quite knows how many it really was: Most sources say 17 million, others say 22 or even 30 million. With a high degree of confidence, I can now say that Commodore only sold 12.5 million units – how I would know that, you ask, and how do I dare to contradict well-known facts? By analyzing serial numbers!<\/p>\n

But let us first examine the existing claims of 17, 22 and 30 million.<\/p>\n

Jack Tramiel’s numbers<\/h3>\n

The numbers 22 and 30 million actually come from Commodore founder Jack Tramiel himself. At the “Impact of the Commodore 64: A 25th Anniversary Celebration”<\/a> in December 2007 at the Computer History Museum<\/a>, Tramiel claimed that Commodore sold nearly half a million C64s a month until he left the company in 1984, and he extrapolated this to “between 22 and 30 million units” during the lifetime of the C64. Tramiel’s assistant Michael Tomczyk, who left the company around the same time, uses the same 22 million figure in his 1984 book “Home Computer Wars – An Insider’s Account of Commodore and Jack Tramiel”.<\/p>\n

Commodore’s Numbers<\/h3>\n

But these numbers contradict Commodore’s official sales numbers as researched by Marc Walters<\/a>: The 1993 Annual Report supposedly states that 17 million units had been sold (production was stopped in April 1994, so this should be very close to the final number). Commodore employee Dr. Peter Kittel confirms<\/a> the 17 million.<\/p>\n

Walters quotes Commodore’s 1993 financial details<\/a> for the sales numbers between 1990 and 1993:<\/p>\n

\nThe following figures are from Commodore annual reports:\nFiscal 1990: 700K - 800K (decline begins),\nfiscal 1991: 800K (non official 1M)\nfiscal 1992: 650K\nfiscal 1993: 150K - 200K\n1993 Annual Report: 17M total C64, 4.5M C128\n<\/pre>\n
Marc Walters’ estimates<\/h3>\n
Walters also gives his own estimates for 1982 through 1989:<\/p>\n
\n1982: 150K - 300K\n1983: 2M\n1984: 2M-3M\n1985: 2M -3M\n1986: 2M -3M\n1987: 1M - 2M\n1988: 1M - 1.5M\n1989: 1M - 1.5M\n<\/pre>\n
This data was later picked up by Jeremy Reimer<\/a> for his Ars Technica article “Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures<\/a>“.<\/p>\n
With these numbers, Commodore would have sold between 13.5 and 19 million units. The following graph shows this, with the 17 million figure added as a scaled version of the ranges given:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Putting all reliable data together<\/h3>\n
This data is quite consistent, but generic sources contradict these steep numbers in the first years:<\/p>\n