Nintendo's Clásico: A shared history between Real Madrid and Barça Champions League and Nintendo consoles

A unnecessary link between Nintendo home consoles and Champions League cups won by Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

Published 2025-05-31

Nintendo Switch 2 is around the corner. A release of a new console is always a moment of excitement, but this time, with the recently launched (maybe not so recent at this point) Sports section at Gamereactor, I've had to divide my attention between the news of the console and the ongoing football season. Often, when I think about one thing, I think about the other: that's how memories are built, not isolated but mixed: I cannot think about the GameCube launch and all those lovely 2002 games without thinking about Real Madrid's 100th anniversary that same year, or remembering Wii's peak happening at the same time as FC Barcelona dominated in the Pep Guardiola vs. Mourinho era, or the release of Mario Kart 8 right after Ancelotti won la Décima.

Thus, to help me better organise my memories, I decided to analyse how many Champions League titles FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have won over the entire length of each Nintendo's generation. I bet no one has ever made this completely irrelevant and frankly useless study, but I also bet I am not the only Nintendo and football fan whose brain works this way...

The list only includes Nintendo home consoles, not handhelds (it would require almost another list for that), picking each generation and counting how many European Cups (or Champions League, as it went on to be called after 1992) each of these two teams won between the release of a console and the release of its successor.

SNES: Barcelona 1 - 0 Real Madrid

SNES was the very first Nintendo console that saw one of these two teams winning an European Cup. Neither won in the 1980s, during the NES lifetime. Only FC Barcelona came close in 1986 (the year NES launched in Europe) but lost to FCSB from Bucharest. The cup finally came to Barcelona on May 20, 1992, against Sampdoria (the year of the Olympics, too).

The final happened a few weeks before SNES got released in Europe. In Spain it was June 6, 1992, alongside Super Mario World and Street Fighter 2, but for the sake of this article (and for the sake of Barça) we will include it and give the generation win to the Blaugranes. In 1994, with SNES at its peak, Barcelona reached another final, but lost to Milan 4-0.

Nintendo 64: Real Madrid 2 - 0 Barcelona

The first European Cup for Real Madrid in 32 years finally came at the expense of Juventus, defeated 1-0, on May 20, 1998. By then, Nintendo 64 was... not winning. Final Fantasy VII had recently been released for PlayStation, which was taking the gaming world by storm and ending the old gaming world order between Nintendo and Sega.

What Nintendo did win was the hearts of the players, with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launching late that year. Two years later, on May 24, 2000, Real Madrid won again against Valencia. Nintendo 64 got Perfect Dark two weeks later, and Zelda Majora's Mask late that year, but it was clear the its time was running out...

GameCube: Real Madrid 1 - 1 Barcelona

Real Madrid won their ninth European Cup against Bayer Leverkusen on May 15, 2002, only two weeks after the GameCube launched in Europe, with a significant delay from the Japanese and North American markets, but with 18 launch titles including classics like Batman: Vengeance, Disney's Tarzan Freeride, and Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure.

GameCube's life was short, however, and on May 17, 2006, when FC Barcelona won their second title against Arsenal, GameCube was on its last legs, with barely anything launching that year... but a revolution was on the horizon. If GameCube's lifetime was a football match, Madrid scored in the first minute, but Barça equalised almost literally on injury time, foreshadowing Barça's best generation.

Wii: Barcelona 2 - 0 Real Madrid

Wii and Pep Guardiola have one thing in common: both reinvigorated their respective owners. Wii led the console generation with a lot of financial success, offering a new way to play that was hugely influential even to this day... and Pep did exactly the same thing.

Two titles: in 2009 (the year Wii Sports Resorts launched) against Manchester United, and in 2011 (shortly after the 3DS had arrived, and a few months before Zelda Skyward Sword launched) against Manchester United again. However, Nintendo's attempt to replicate the success beyond the generation did not work well for the Japanese... nor the culers.

Wii U: Real Madrid 2 - 1 Barcelona

It's surprising how busy the generation was for Madrid and Barça for such a short-lived console. After failing to reach Barça's successes, at least in Europe, Mourinho moved aside, and Carlo Ancelotti came along. And on May 24, 2014, Real Madrid claimed their first trophy in 12 years against Atlético de Madrid. One week later, Mario Kart 8 launched. So, yes, Real Madrid has won five Champions Leagues between the latest Mario Kart game and the next one, Mario Kart World on June 5, 2025...

Joy did not last long for Madrid, as in 2015, when Wii U received its most exciting new game, Splatoon. Barça, led by Luis Enrique, now at PSG, struck back, beating Juventus, as well as winning the treble, as Pep did in 2009. One year later, Madrid responded with the first title of the Zidane trilogy on May 26, 2016... but sadly for Nintendo, Wii U was past beyond injury time: Star Fox Zero, released one month earlier, was the final "big" Wii U exclusive.

Nintendo Switch: Real Madrid 4 - 0 Barcelona

Nintendo's latest generation is also its longest: eight full years (and two months) between Switch and Switch 2. Its launch, on March 2017, came two months before Zidane's second Champions League title, which in itself happened a week before E3 2017, where Metroid Prime 4 was first announced... Cristiano Ronaldo's final Champions League in 2018 before his sudden exit came one year later, with Switch 2 receiving Fortnite for the first time, as well as hyping the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at E3.

After Cristiano left, an era seemed to be over, but Ancelotti had some more ideas... and so did Nintendo, extending Switch's dominance well beyond anyone could have imagined: 2022's Champions League coincided with the release of, among others, the football game Mario Strikers Battle League Football. Two years later, around the same time as Madrid lifted their 15th Cup in 2024, Nintendo finally properly unveiled the game they had shown seven years and three cups earlier, Metroid Prime 4, now subtitled Beyond.

Beyond indeed, as another full season went by without it releasing. A new generation arose in the meantime, with Nintendo Switch 2 launching a week after the Champions League final between PSG and Inter. A new generation for Nintendo and for Barça, who came the closest to the final in a decade.

It wasn't meant to be, and Nintendo Switch's generation ended up completely white. Will Nintendo Switch 2 change colours again? How many (if any) Champions Leagues do you think Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will win during the Nintendo Switch 2 generation, and how long will it last? I can't wait to revisit this study in a few years!

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