The Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld game console which was developed and manufactured by Nintendo and first released on April 21, 1989, in North America on July 31, 1989, and in Europe on September 28, 1990. It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line.
The Game Boy is Nintendo's second handheld game console, combining features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game & Watch (the first Nintendo handheld). It was sold either as a standalone unit, or bundled with the puzzle game Tetris.
During its early lifetime, the Game Boy mainly competed with Sega's Game Gear, Atari's Lynx, and NEC's TurboExpress. It outsold its rivals and became a significant success. The Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color, have sold over 118 million units worldwide as of 2016. Upon the Game Boy's release in the United States, its entire shipment of one million units was sold within a few weeks. Production of the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color were discontinued in the early 2000s, being replaced by the Game Boy Advance, which was released in 2001.