65 million tops, unless Mario Maker really takes off on 3DS. As we all know, Smash 3DS outsold Smash Wii U so who knows, but I'm saying 65m LT.

Incorrect. Shipments were at less than 60M as of the 30th of June.

It depends. Due to its hybrid nature, there's no telling what sort of effect the NX will have on 3DS sales.

On one hand, yes, the release of a successor tends to adversely effect a console's sales.

But when you look at the actual release schedule, the NX seems to be more of a successor of the Wii U than 3DS. While Wii U software looks to be ending soon, we have high profile 3DS releases going well into next year.

So, will the NX be backwards compatible with 3DS software? Will the NX's launch cause Nintendo to stop supporting the 3DS with marketing? Will Nintendo continue to treat the 3DS as a viable platform after the NX is launched?

If Nintendo continues to market and support the 3DS through next year, ESPECIALLY if the NX isn't capable of playing 3DS software, I certainly think the 3DS will be able to hit 70 million lifetime, unless the system completely collapses in sales this holiday season.

The 3DS was already just short of 60 million at the end of June, and given it's increased sales over the summer, it's probably well past 61 million now. With the release of a new pokemon and a very cheap 2DS option, we 3DS should at least match 2015's 3.6 million for the holiday quarter, bringing us fairly close to 65 million. It wouldn't be too much of a feat for 3DS to sell a little over 5 million next year, providing the favorable conditions I mentioned are met.

Yeah, Ryng already showed me that.

I would say no...... 10mil is quite a lot!

Because Nintendo will soon after NX release, stop selling 3ds...

Oh my god...

10m in the current and rest three years not six months! Hello, we're not talking for  a Nintendo home console...

It's somewhat logical to say that It won't cross 70m ( and no legs ), since it could have bad holidays despite pokemon S/M+pokemon go, ( maybe super Mario run ) 2DS+MK7 at 80$ and its release in Japan due to NX launch being close...
However, predicting that it will end with 65m? Extremely irrational! Nintendo forecast is about 64m 3ds sold as of March 2017, that before Pokémon go increasing 3ds sales! 5m for the whole FY is a low aim ( notably that it has all of the aforementioned chanches fo ar boost ), hence a feasible aim.
They shipped 1m in the first quarter, 4m left, we should see the boost by Pokémon go in the second quarter!

They should discontinue 3ds in 2017 for 65m, and 3ds has games for 2017, plus that Nintendo handheld consoles keep selling for another 2 to 4 years...

Seriously, with some comments I'm wondering if people thought thoroughly before posting their expectations!


Nintendo is flooding holidays, with NEW 3DS XL/2DS pokemon S/M limited editions and they just changed the 2ds color scemes, is that showing a company that has abandoned the pushing of its HC? For a hc, which in spite of being near to its end, they held a direct with many new games for it.
They just released 2ds in Japan and it's doing well, keeping 3ds steadily WYOY up! Also they have completely abandoned wii u to focus on 3ds promotion not because wii u was done.



What's with that pessimism and anticipation of no legs?


We have yet to see a price drop for the NEW 3DS XL and 2ds is ridiculously cheap bundled with MK7!

For history, sales of Nintendo handheld consoles after their successor coming out. ( ROUNDED NUMBERS )

GBC->GBA 5M FY02 4.7M FY01 0.3M
( GBC, A GB REVISION BUT WITH ITS OWN BRAND NEW HUGE GAME LIBRARY, RELEASED 1998 AFTER 9 YEARS OF GB )

GBA-> DSL 6.42M FY07 4.4M FY08 1.6M FY09 0.42M
( NOT FAT DS, BECAUSE IT WASN'T A HOT THING THAT DSL BECAME AND DIDN'T INFLUENCED GBA SALES MUCH IN THE WEST, IT WAS RELEASED IN THE THIRD FY OF GBA )

DS->3DS 7.6M FY12 5.1M FY13 2.35M FY14 0.13 FY15 0.02M FY16 0.01M
( FROM FY 2012 BECAUSE 3DS IN FY11 WASN'T DOING WELL TO HAVE ANY SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON DS SALES )


Keep in mind that all of the above successors  had BC which made their predecessors obsolete and useless, NX doesn't seem that it will have BC with 3ds!


On average, GBC/GBA/DS had 6.34m onwards sales.  Are you still oreseeing 65m for 3DS?

Taking into account the above clues, I could say that crossing 70m isn't a diffuclt task.
I would be shocked if 3ds falls ashort of 70m, especially if its even under 69m, the eventuality of 69m is not low though, it depends on this holidays pefromance!

Here's a projection of sales based on 70m:

FY16 65m 6m ( 1m more than Nintendo's forecast, mainly due to the unforeseen big pokemon go boost )
NX RELEASE
FY17 68M 3M
FY18 69.5M 1.5M
FY19 69.9M 0.4M
FY20/21 70m 0.1M

So, another 5M sales during nx life time, on par with gbc and close to the average onwards sales of gbc/gba/ds!

P.s
3DS might surprise us by approaching 80m, I mean ending up with 77m, since every quarter it's at the half of ds sales! NX may not have 3ds compatability and 3ds salescomparison with previous Nintendo HC shows that there is room for 3ds growth in NA, even if it's very late, these could lead to outstanding legs! 3DS is a lot down compared with gba in NA, while in Europe they are equal and in Japan 3ds has outperformed it for a great margin!

I'm having my doubts myself. I think it'll end around 60-65 mil due to the 3DS not having that much life left in it.

I think it will. There's no reason to think with good bundles and the new Pokemon that there won't be a ton of 3DS's sold again this holiday season. It can slowly truck along with big price cuts once the NX comes out anyway.

well maybe 2ds can still sell and get the number to 70 mil