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TheBraveGallade on 05 July 2025
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Norion said:
curl-6 said:

Yeah people often don't realize how much of a beast the GBA was because it's time as Nintendo's flagship handheld was cut short after less than 5 years, resulting in a final tally somewhat lower than the Gameboy. During that relatively short span though it was one of the fastest selling systems ever at the time.

Well more than somewhat but yeah its final total being almost the same as the PSP shows how just looking at the number without the context can be misleading. Now time to see if the Switch 2 can keep the record in Japan for over 20 years.

the GBA basically sold a full generations worth of handhelds in HALF the time, and also basically wiped out any remaining competition for handhelds (which were a thing mostly due to the GB's lower specs usually).

Imagine if the GBA wasn't delayed to hell and back and came out around 1998-9 or so. 

at any rate the GBA really was kneecapped by the PSP really, since responding to the PSP was the reason for the DS coming out so early (without PSP I'd say the DS probably launched with the DS lite as the base model around 2006.)