It continues to be popular among collectors and retro gamers, with new homebrew games and Nintendo's emulated rereleases, such as on the Virtual Console, the Super NES Classic Edition, and Nintendo Switch Online. Overlapping the NES's 61.9 million unit sales, the SNES remained popular well into the 32-bit era, with 49.1 million units sold worldwide by the time it was discontinued in 2003. The SNES was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era after launching relatively late and facing intense competition from Sega's Genesis console in North America and Europe. The system was designed to accommodate the ongoing development of a variety of enhancement chips integrated in game cartridges to be competitive into the next generation. The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other systems at the time. The SNES is Nintendo's second programmable home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). They later they released it in North America, Europe, and other territories. Nintendo released it in Japan in 1990 as the Super Famicom (or SFC for short). Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of regional lockout prevent the different cartridges from being compatible with one another. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as Super NES, SNES, or Super Nintendo) was a 16-bit video game console.

In Japan, the system is called the Super Famicom (SFC). The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Australasia (Oceania), and 1993 in South America.

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