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Shadow1980 said:
But there are caveats, in the GBA's case the fact that there are often significant regional variations in sales patterns which can have a huge effect on global sales. Case in point, let's look at the regional share of each Nintendo handheld, first in absolute numbers then by a proportional comparison:
The U.S.'s share of GBA sales was disproportionate in terms of both global market share and in relation to sales of the original Game Boy. You bring up the GB Color, and while it did provide a solid boost, it was a far sharper, more delayed, and proportionally greater boost in America than in Japan. The GBC took off like a rocket in the U.S., selling a staggering 14.27 million in just the first 25-½ months, and almost immediately we continued buying the GBA in similar quantities. The GBA started strong and kept growing, with a peak of almost 7.8M in 2003. By the end of 2005 it had already far surpassed every console released in the 20th century in the U.S., making it the third best-selling system of all time at the time in the region after the PS2 and original Game Boy. Meanwhile, in Japan the GBC had a more modest effect on Game Boy sales and was already declining in sales by time the GBA came out. The GBA never really took off in Japan like it did in the U.S.; it had a strong launch, but sales were relatively flat during from 2001 until the DS released, and it rarely busted 50k per week outside the holidays (the three-month period that began with the SP's launch was a notable exception), which isn't anything special as far as handhelds go in Japan. Europe was much like Japan in this regard. The GBA sold a little over half of what the original Game Boy did, and if shipment data (which includes Australia-Oceania, Africa, and the rest of Asia alongside Europe) is any indication, even in its best year the GBA was outclassed by the best year of both the original Game Boy model and the GB Color. Regional variations matter. The U.S.'s buying habits in regards to the GBA were highly unusual. The only things released in the last 20 years that saw the U.S. have as huge of a chunk of their global pie all have "Xbox" in their names. Ergo, anomalous GBA sales in America inflated global sales of the system. Had the U.S. behaved more like the rest of the world, the GBA would have sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-65 million units instead of 81 million, and the 3DS would be well on its way to passing it globally, not just outside of America. All things considered, the 3DS isn't doing all that bad. It only looks bad because of wonky American buying habits back when Pokemon was still relatively new to us and because the DS was an absolute freak of gaming sales nature. |
The Game Boy Color had shipments in the US of
8.7 mill (FYE Mar 2000)
7.74 mill (FYE Mar 2001)
Then the GBA simply picks up right where the GBC left off in its first two years:
7.5 mill (FYE Mar 2002)
7.8 mill (FYE Mar 2003)
Shrugs. Seems fairly consistent to me. Once Pokemon took like crazy around late 1999 in the US, Game Boy brand sales in the US were high, that wasn't an "unexplained" anamoly though.
The DS was the anamoly in that it had a slow first two years in the US, but even then Nintendo quickly returns to 7+ mill handheld sales in the North American market fairly quickly and then of course begins to crush that number.
Nowadays, 3DS is going to probably have issues hitting 7 mill+ worldwide this year, let alone being to do that just in the American market like the GBC, GBA, and DS all did several times.
3DS' peak year in the US market for sales was 4.6 million. GBC is 8.7 million, GBA is 9.45 million, DS is 12.29 mill. 3DS is odd man out there, not the GBA.
