Shadow1980 said:
Roughly half of the GBA's global sales total came from North America, whereas only 36% of original Game Boy line sales were from NA. Also, the GBA sold almost as much as the original Game Boy line, whereas the gen-over-gen drop was by nearly half in Japan and Europe. This is consistent with a massive spike in handheld sales in the U.S., which both NPD data and Nintendo shipment data shows happening concurrent with the GB Color's first full year and continuing on through to the GBA. Said multi-year spike was simply not present in Europe and Japan. For some reason or another (Pokemon being a likely contributor), the handheld market exploded in the U.S. in 1999 and remained strong throughout the GBA era. Meanwhile, with the DS we see it having a regional split more in line with that of the original Game Boy line. Gen-over-gen sales went up about two-fold in Japan (where the DS didn't have quite the protracted strong streak it did in the West) and 2.5-fold in Europe, but only by about 42% in the U.S. because of how big the GBA was. While those 3DS bars haven't reached their final configuration, numerically the 3DS will likely end up at about half the GBA's sales in North America, while in Japan the handheld market is still very healthy and in Europe the 3DS could still match the GBA. The 3DS's "poor" performance for a Nintendo handheld is almost entirely due to the U.S., where we've seen a huge correction in the handheld market after being overly inflated during the first half of the 00s. Global numbers don't tell us much unless we actually analyze regional differences in buying habits, which are frequently quite large. The question likely isn't "Why isn't the 3DS selling better than it is?" but rather "Why did the GBA perform so well in the U.S.?" |
It's not only in the US the 3DS is down quite a bit compared to the GBA. At roughly the same point in its life compared to where the 3DS is now, the GBA had sold 19 million in the "Other" region (Which btw doesn't match 100% with Europe, there were/are other, albeit small regions also included under that term) compared to the 3DS's 16 million, and, get this, that's despite the DS having been out for almost a year by then. So that's 3 million more in the other region, despite its successor having been out a year. Like I said, if the GBA had been given a longer life, it could've done a lot more. The only region were the 3DS is performing better than the GBA is Japan, were the difference, with launches aligned is about 3.5 million. So if we ignore the Americas, the 3DS is up 0.5 million. Sure, that paints a much brighter picture, but then you remember that this is 1 year after the DS launch in the GBA's lifespan, while the 3DS still reigns alone. Once again it comes back to the GBA getting a successor super quickly (3 and a half years). I'm pretty confident that the GBA could've managed 30 million in the Other region alone, or at least pretty darn close to it, had it's successor come at the same point it its life as the 3DS' successor will, yet the 3DS might just reach 20 million.
