No, there's no mistake here. These aren't averages of the sales figures, but rounded up (to the nearest 10) averages of the percentages. Let's call it, best possible scenario ... if Switch reaches its peak in year one or not. Because they're not the same, the numbers will differ. 

Thanks for including these.

(Referring to bold)  Both of these launched against no competition because they created their markets, but both NES and Gameboy had plenty of competitors during their lifetimes.  Being the market creator seemed to have given them some sort of huge advantage against competitors that lasted for one generation.

But overall, it is probably most useful to compare Switch to the "Iwata" consoles.  Iwata had major input on the design of 5 consoles: DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch.  Switch has a solid design and strategy like the DS and Wii did.  DS had a slow start, but it peaked so late largely because of massive 3rd party support.  Wii peaked a lot earlier, because it's 3rd party support was decent, but not nearly as good as DS third party support. 

So the real question is, what kind of third party support will the Switch have?  Looking at the type of 3rd party games already being ported to Switch, I think it is going to end up with some very impressive 3rd party support over its lifetime like the DS.  Devs are not really torn between making games for the core market vs. a new market that only likes party games and motion controls.  DS was considered an underpowered system, but it supported games that core gamers would like.  This makes the Switch very much like the DS.

There might be some life left in the 3DS yet despite middling sales at present......I for example have plans to buy 3 this year. 2x 2DS for my young nieces and a N3DS for myself as I seem to be one of the few who liked the 3D feature and I still dont see the Switch as my true portable.

I don't think I will be the only one in this boat at those systems current relatively cheap price points and I feel some may not leave the 3DS until an even more portable Switch-lite appears.

The chipset used for the N3DS and N2DS provides some headroom to still get some solid games out for the system for a few years yet.

Intresting.

TBH I don't see any correlation, apart from the obvious like, less than $100 and no more than $300 launch price. If you take NES out of the equation, I'd say ... the curse of $199 price tag prevents systems to reach 50M barrier ??? Nah, there's nothing there. Software is the key.

3DS probably has the strongest lineup in terms of software of any Nintendo console ever so far...
and its only at 71M dispite alot of owners collecting them and haveing (3-4 models of them).

Software (quality & quantity) isnt the only thing that counts.
Wii Had a few really great games (mario galaxy I+II, Xenoblade, ect) but its overall library was kinda weak.... yet it went on to sell more than 100m.

Its hard to say what makes a succesfull console, esp with nintendo.
Maybe the Motion Controll & games for it + handheld aspect + Labo are enough to repeat the Wii's success though.

I'm guilty! I'm hoping they come out with more editions, I'm obsessed with collecting them at this point. 

Alot of people have a old model, and one of the newer ones atleast.
I wouldnt be surprised if those 70m+ 3ds sales are actually like 40m people only.

3DS has one of the strongest libraries? Are you serious? If you were a JRPG gamer I can see why you would think that but the 3DS's library was very mono. Sure there are some good games on there but a huge chunk of them are RPGs. Most specifically JRPGs. If you compare the 3DS to the DS or Wii you see that variety is a bit more lacking.  On the DS it was common to see platformers, Puzzles, Mystery, Education, Shooter, RPGs and shoot'em ups on the same system. The Wii has fitness, platformers, Hack'n'Slash, shooters, Sports, puzzle and Party games. The 3DS has a good library but if you aren't into JRPGs than you really are going to have a hard time justifying buying one. You wouldn't even consider it if you didn't like Platformers or JRPGs. 

Also, 3DS cannot compete with the NES or SNES either. At best the 3DS is at 5th place. There is a reason why the 3DS sold the way it did. That's why the Switch will breeze right through the 3DS. It will have a library that is better in both variety, quality and quantity. 

This is interesting, great thread.

It seems the Switch so far is a copy of the Wii, which is a good outlook. It comes out of the gate guns blazing like Wii did, selling comparibly, and it's even the same price. I could see Switch's second year (so, this one) being it's peak, like Wii's, with the big Zelda, 3D Mario, Mario Kart and Smash Bros. released.

There's one thing that'll make all the difference though. Switch seems to have more appeal to the core-gamer than Wii did, considering games like Skyrim, Fifa are practically million sellers, Doom had done more than decently and games previously unimaginable on a Nintendo system like Dark Souls and Wolfenstein are coming. Hopefully this means it'll have longer legs than Wii, and won't drop from it's peak as fast.

Switch could end it's life with a very respectible number. I'm a believer.