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Soundwave on 13 August 2015
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Shadow1980 said:

I have complete monthly NPD data for the GBA going from launch through Sept. 2007, for the DS and PSP through the end of 2010 (2011 data is very spotty; only six months for the DS and three for the PSP), and for the 3DS from launch to present (I never logged monthly Vita sales, but I did add up the monthlies to get annual sales; there's no 2015 data available, though). I also have yearly NPD data for handhelds from 1995 through 1999. Everything else is based on VGC data.  Here's my yearly chart through 2014 (the GBA figure for 2007 doesn't include Q4 since that data is unavailable):

By comparison, here's Japan (unfortunately no hardware sales prior to 2000 are readily available):


As I've pointed out in previous threads on the subject of handheld sales, the U.S. is the entire reason the 3DS is lagging behind the GBA. In Japan the 3DS passed the GBA months ago and is well on its way to passing the PSP, and in Europe it stands a good chance of at least matching the GBA. The U.S. had a disproportionately large share of GBA sales; North America represented half the global tally of GBA sales. While in Europe and Japan the GBA sold about half what the Game Boy did, in NA it came close to matching the Game Boy. Had the U.S.'s buying habits more closely mimicked that of Japan and Europe, the GBA may have sold only 60-65M instead of over 80M, and the 3DS would already be close to passing the GBA globally. While the ratio of NA to Europe was nearly 2:1 for GBA sales, sales from NA were a nearly even split between the two regions for the Game Boy, DS, and so far the 3DS (Japan's share of 3DS sales is slightly elevated compared to previous gens, but right now is only about 35% compared NA's ~50% share of GBA sales; it's worth pointing out that consoles were stiffer competition in the sixth generation in Japan).

Speaking of the DS, it was an absolute sales phenomenon, with peak sales well in excess of any other handheld or console ever, including the PS2 & Wii (oddly enough, it was less of a beast in Japan, "only" selling as well as the Game Boy; in both NA & Europe the DS sold well over 30% more units than the GB). Also, the PSP was the first time a non-Nintendo handheld sold well. Last generation as a whole was not "normal" in any sense, and that applies to the handheld side of things as well.

The 3DS will likely go on to sell around 75 million units, plus or minus several million. Hardly disastrous. Something happened specifically to the U.S. market that caused the 3DS to perform significantly worse than the GBA. Either the U.S. market underwent a "correction" of sorts (the 3DS had a very lackluster start due largely to an initial inflation-adjusted price double that of the GBA, plus the GBA was riding on the wave of the height of the Pokemon phenomenon) or Americans who bought handhelds in the past are specifically just uniquely dispositioned to abandoning handhelds for mobile (which I'm inclined to disbelieve without any real market research; Europeans and Japanese enjoy mobile devices as much as we do). The question shouldn't be "Why isn't the 3DS selling better than what it is?" Rather, we should be asking "Why was the GBA so damn huge in America?" and "Why was the DS such an unusually massive success?"

Pokemon happened in the late 90s, and that altered Nintendo's handheld sales. 

But we see that with the Game Boy COLOR already, and new average of 6-8 million Nintendo handhelds a year in the US by your own chart is basically the norm until the 3DS comes around and it goes much lower than that from there on. 

So the 3DS is the odd one out, not the GBA, GBA just carried on more or less the sales average the GBC had established for two years prior.