2004 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Madden NFL 2005, NBA Live 2005, ESPN NBA 2K5, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw, Doom 3, Dragon Quest VIII, Gran Turismo 4, ', Half-Life 2, Halo 2, ', ', Ninja Gaiden, Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen/Emerald, Pikmin 2, Everybody's Golf 4 (Hot Shots Golf Fore!), ', and World of Warcraft. New intellectual properties included Fable, Far Cry, FlatOut, Killzone, Katamari Damacy, Monster Hunter, N, Red Dead Revolver, SingStar, and Sacred. The Nintendo DS was also launched that year, the first major console of the seventh generation.
The year has been retrospectively considered one of the best and most influential in video game history due to the release of numerous critically acclaimed, commercially successful and influential titles across all platforms and genres at the time. The year's best-selling video game was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The year's most critically acclaimed titles were Dragon Quest VIII and Gran Turismo 4 in Japan, and Half-Life 2 and San Andreas in the West.
The list of game-related hardware released in 2004.
This seventh generation of video game consoles began this year with the launch of the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable (only in Japan for the latter).
Sony also released the PlayStation 2 slimline, a smaller revision model of the PlayStation 2.
As of 2026, the Nintendo DS is the best-selling handheld game console of all time and the 2nd best video game console overall (right behind the PlayStation 2).
In 2004, the total U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories was 9.9 billion compared with 10 billion in 2003. Total software sales rose 8 percent over the previous year to 6.2 billion. Additionally, sales of portable software titles exceeded 1 billion for the first time. Hardware sales were down 27 percent for the year due in part to shortages during the holiday season and price reductions from all systems.
The dominant handheld systems in 2004 were:
Additionally, Nokia released an updated version of their original N-Gage, called the N-Gage QD. Nintendo released the Nintendo DS on November 21 in the United States. In Japan Sony released the PlayStation Portable on December 12.
In Japan, the following video game releases in 2004 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" and received Famitsu scores of at least 36 out of 40.
In the West, Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.