Brands

Animated: The Most Valuable Brands From 2000–2022

Published

2 years ago

January 5, 2023

James Eagle

Featured Creator

Article/Editing:

Omri Wallach

The Most Valuable Brands From 2000–2022

How much money is a brand truly worth?

For some companies, a brand is something that helps slightly boost customer engagement and sales. But for others, including some of the largest companies in the world, a strong brand is one of their most valuable assets.

This animated graphic by James Eagle uses the annual brand rankings from Interbrand to track the world’s most valuable brands from 2000 to 2022.

Measuring Brand Value

One of the difficulties of brand valuation is its subjectivity.

In accounting, the value of a brand is sometimes represented as an intangible asset called goodwill on the balance sheet. That’s because the brand power associated with a company (i.e. brand recognition, brand loyalty, customer base, reputation, etc.) often makes a company more valuable than just the sum of its tangible assets like land, buildings, or product inventory.

This works for accounting purposes but is still a rough estimation, and doesn’t precisely quantify a brand’s true value.

For Interbrand’s studies, a consistent formula for brand strength was utilized which is based on a company’s financial forecast, brand role, and brand strength. It uses estimates of the present value of earnings a brand is forecasted to generate in the future.

The Top 10 Most Valuable Brands Since 2000

When the 2000s started, the internet was top-of-mind in terms of both markets and customer perception. The Dotcom bubble was driving the world’s largest companies, and brand value at the time reflected tech’s popularity:

Rank	Brand	Value (2000)	Industry
1	Coca-Cola	$72.5B	Beverages
2	Microsoft	$70.2B	Tech
3	IBM	$53.2B	Tech
4	Intel	$39.1B	Tech
5	Nokia	$38.5B	Tech
6	General Electric	$38.1B	Energy
7	Ford	$36.4B	Automotive
8	Disney	$33.6B	Media
9	McDonald's	$27.9B	Restaurants
10	AT&T	$25.6B	Telecom

Half of the top 10 most valuable brands at the time were in tech or telecom, including Microsoft, IBM, and Nokia.

Others were classic American brands and companies at the top of their fields, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Ford, and McDonald’s.

But over the next 20 years, much of the old guard was replaced by new and rising brands. By 2022, only three of the top 10 most valuable brands from 2000 remained at the top:

Rank	Brand	Value (2022)	Industry
1	Apple	$482.2B	Tech
2	Microsoft	$278.3B	Tech
3	Amazon	$274.8B	Consumer
4	Google	$251.8B	Tech
5	Samsung	$87.7B	Tech
6	Toyota	$59.8B	Automotive
7	Coca-Cola	$57.5B	Beverages
8	Mercedes-Benz	$56.1B	Automotive
9	Disney	$50.3B	Media
10	Nike	$50.3B	Consumer

Apple’s brand is now worth an estimated $482 billion, even though the company didn’t even crack the top 10 list back in the year 2000.

In fact, four of the top five brands on the 2022 list are directly in tech, and even Amazon (#3) is often considered a tech giant. Not surprisingly, brand value in the top 10 has grown almost across the board, though Coca-Cola is a notable exception, dropping $15 billion in estimated brand value over 22 years.

How will the most valuable brands continue to evolve over the coming decades?

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Technology

Visualized: Nintendo Console and Game Sales Through The Years

The DS holds the title of Nintendo’s top-selling console of all time. Which other consoles have been Nintendo’s main moneymakers?

Published

2 weeks ago

November 25, 2024

Kayla Zhu

Nintendo Game and Console Sales By The Numbers

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Nintendo consoles have consistently ranked among the best-selling game consoles of all time.

The video game company, founded in 1889, released their first home gaming console, the Color TV-Game in 1977, and then their widely-known Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985.

Since then, the company hasn’t slowed down, having distributed a new console at least every five years until the release of the Switch in 2017.

This graphic visualizes the number of games and console units sold for each Nintendo console, as well as its release year and console type. The release dates represent U.S. release dates and console sale figures include variant models, such as the Switch Lite and Switch OLED.

The data comes from Nintendo and is updated as of March 2024.

The Nintendo DS is Nintendo’s Top-Selling Console

The Nintendo DS and its various models have sold a total of 154 million units, making it the highest-selling Nintendo console.

Its innovative dual-screen design—with the first touchscreen in handheld gaming–and multiplayer capabilities set it apart from other gaming consoles at the time, like the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Console	Console type	Release year	Console sales (units, millions)	Software sales (units, millions)
Nintendo Switch (all models)	Hybrid	2017	141	1,236
Wii U	Hybrid	2012	14	104
Nintendo 3DS (all models)	Handheld	2011	76	392
Wii	Home	2006	102	922
Nintendo DS (all models)	Handheld	2004	154	949
Nintendo GameCube	Home	2001	22	209
Game Boy Advance (all models)	Handheld	2001	82	377
Nintendo 64	Home	1996	33	225
SNES	Home	1990	49	379
Game Boy	Handheld	1989	119	501
NES	Home	1985	62	500

Beyond the DS, Nintendo’s handheld devices have consistently outsold their home console counterparts. Nintendo’s newest console, the Switch, leads in game sales with 1.2 billion units sold, and is also the company’s second top-selling console.

The Switch’s hybrid gaming capability is also the first of its kind. The console combines the features of handheld and home consoles in one device with its docking abilities and removable joy-con controllers.

The Wii, released in 2006, was Nintendo’s best selling home console by far, with 102 million units sold. However, its successor, the Wii U, was the worst-selling Nintendo console by far.

The Nintendo Switch’s Successor

Earlier this year, Nintendo posted on X that they would announce the Nintendo Switch’s successor within this fiscal year, which ends March 31st, 2025.

Not much is known about the console, but the phrasing of it being the successor to the Nintendo Switch suggests it could be another home and handheld hybrid console.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about video game consoles over the years, check out this graphic which shows the launch prices of video game consoles adjusted for inflation.