---
title: "Which came first, Coca-Cola or Nintendo?"
description: "Coca-Cola vs Nintendo: Coca-Cola came first, by 3 years — 1886 against 1889. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/coca-cola-vs-nintendo/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Coca-Cola or Nintendo?

**Which came first, Coca-Cola or Nintendo?: Coca-Cola**

1886 — 3 years before Nintendo

Coca-Cola came first, by 3 years. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.

## Side by side

|  | Coca-Cola | Nintendo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1886 | 1889 |
| Date | 1886-05-08 | 1889-09-23 |
| Category | company | company |
| What happened | John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta. | Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto. |

## Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola went on sale in May 1886 as a patent medicine, selling about nine glasses a day in its first year. Pemberton sold the rights for a few thousand dollars and died in 1888 without seeing any of it. Pepsi followed in 1893 under the name Brad's Drink, renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898 — so Coke is seven years older, and both are older than the Ford Motor Company.

## Nintendo

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make handmade hanafuda cards, and it was a playing-card company for about eighty years. It is older than the Ford Motor Company (1903), older than the aeroplane, older than the Eiffel Tower by five months, and older than the modern Olympic Games. Before settling on video games in the 1970s it tried taxis, instant rice and a chain of love hotels.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Coca-Cola or Nintendo?

Coca-Cola, by 3 years — 1886 against 1889.

### When did Coca-Cola start?

1886. John Pemberton first sold his syrup at a pharmacy in Atlanta.

### When did Nintendo start?

1889. Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto.

## Related pages

- [the Great Pyramid of Giza or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/great-pyramid-vs-nintendo/)
- [the Eiffel Tower or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/eiffel-tower-vs-nintendo/)
- [Germany or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/germany-vs-nintendo/)
- [the hamburger or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/hamburger-vs-nintendo/)
- [the lightbulb or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/lightbulb-vs-nintendo/)
- [the car or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-nintendo/)
- [the car or Coca-Cola?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-coca-cola/)
- [the aeroplane or Nintendo?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-nintendo/)
- [the aeroplane or Coca-Cola?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-coca-cola/)
- [Nintendo or sharks?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/nintendo-vs-sharks/)
- [Nintendo or Tyrannosaurus rex?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/nintendo-vs-t-rex/)
- [Nintendo or the Statue of Liberty?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/nintendo-vs-statue-of-liberty/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]