Anniversary: It’s Been 25 Years Since The Dreamcast’s North American “9.9.99” Launch

Anniversary: It's Been 25 Years Since The Dreamcast's North American "9.9.99" Launch 1
Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Dreamcast’s North American launch.

Following in the footsteps of the console’s November 27, 1998 Japanese launch, the console arrived in US stores for $199, alongside an impressive 18 games.

The Dreamcast famously sold over 225,132 units in 24 hours, banking Sega $98.4 million – a feat that then-president of SoA Peter Moore claimed was “the biggest 24 hours in entertainment retail history.”

Moore explains on social media:

I did some checking, and realized that the movie Stars Wars: Phantom Menace had enjoyed the biggest opening 24 hours in movie history, grossing over $24 million in ticket sales. Based on our estimates, we were going to go well past that mark. I started talking about the Dreamcast launch being the biggest opening day in American entertainment media history.

The console’s performance in North America was certainly more encouraging for Sega than its Japanese fortunes, which had waned in the months after its arrival in that region.

Spurred on by quality games and a raft of excellent in-house sports titles, Dreamcast would eventually claim over 30 per cent of the US market by Christmas 1999 – by which point, over a million consoles had been sold in the region.

Sadly, this commercial success (combined with a good launch in Europe) wasn’t enough to turn Sega’s fortunes around, and the company would soon announce that it was shifting focus to become a third-party software publisher, making Dreamcast its final games console.

Despite this, Dreamcast is home to some of the best games of its generation, including Power Stone, Shenmue, Ikaruga, Skies Of Arcadia, Crazy Taxi 2, SoulCalibur, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Border Down and more.

What are your memories of 9.9.99? Let us know with a comment below.

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