1. Gamecube came out a year after the PS2. Following behind your more successful competitor is never a good thing. Imagine if Xbox Series X came out a year after the PS5.
2. The Gamecube followed the N64. I know plenty of us loved our N64 but it was plagued with game draughts and ultimately fell short of the software line that people had come to expect from a Nintendo platform loosing lots of 3rd party support to playstation.
3. Gamecube did not have many must have titles. Gamecube software became increasingly more niche. Titles like Metroid and Pikmin have never sold huge amounts, its popular franchsies saw incarnations which alientated or dissappointed fans (Windwakers style & Mario Sunshine gameplay & level design).
4. PS2 had all the important 3rd party exclusives early on. Its not all about the failings of Nintendo, but more what did PS2 have that it didn't? In this case, generation shaping titles like GTA3, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken, Kingdom Hearts, GT. Most of PS2's mega smashes were 3rd party, most arrived before the gamecube even hit its 1 year anniversary and most of these relationships were established by Nintendo's failure to produce dev friendly hardware or practices the prior generation. Porting games was also a far more expensive task back then.
5. Following in line of what the PS2 did right, it had a DVD.
6. Nintendo unlike Xbox did not do so well to cater to maturing tastes of the time.
If you look at the actual drop in marketshare, the Gamecube did not miss its target nearly as bad as the N64 or PS3 and is pretty in line with an Xbox One level underperformance.
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