Think about it: DS was a miracle that sold 150+M units. The 3DS while not bad is currently only at 50M and will struggle to reach 80M. Still it has the much better library. Use Metacritic as comparison:

http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/release-date/available/ds/metascore?view=detailed

http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/release-date/available/3ds/metascore?view=detailed

Metascore of 90+: 7xDS, 7x3DS

That is the case, although the 3DS still has 2 years of life left. And a lot of games still are coming: Bravely Second, Youkai Watch, most likely another Pokemon.

So despite the smaller install-base the 3DS gets more quality games. Why is that? Discuss!

Loll I see where this is going but I will say that it is cause the 3ds is awesome

I'd say it's very arguable that the 3DS has a better library than the DS.... Very arguable.

Hmm, I can fully agree with this.

3DS had some amazing years early in its lifestyle, easily being the system of the year a few years in a row (imo). While overall quantity of titles has decreased (and Western devs have pretty much given up on the system altogether), Nintendo continues to produce amazing titles.

Honestly, 3DS is one of my favorite systems, and I have so many titles to play on it including DS games, eShop games and Virtual Console games.

The main reason it has lots of of great games because it is over four years old.

DS had much the better library though, no matter what metacritic says. I would imagine the 80-89 meta range is much in the DS' favour. 3DS is a good console, but inferior to its predecessor.

Actually the DS has about twice as many 85+ games as the 3DS.

I'm not saying it has the better library, but currently it has one third of the installbase and has still some life in it - but the high ranked games are a lot more than one third (obviously, 90+ ranks are actually the same).

Nearly twice as many (38vs22 if I counted right), but the DS has thrice the installbase and was longer on the market. If all is said and done, the 3DS will probably end up around half the installbase of the DS, but the number of 85+-games will be a lot nearer to the number the DS has. So being sold THAT much less, but still has such an awesome library? Why that?

Epic thread.