Currently the 3DS is tracking ahead of the DS.

But I'm being told this is still before the DS had its BIG JUMP.

When was this and what caused it (probably certian games)?  And how is the 3DS comapring to those BIG DS sales jump?

It took off at different times in different parts of the world.

Japan: December 2005. In early 2005 the PSP was outselling the DS. Then Jump Superstars and Nintendogs were released and the DS sold better. In late 2005 the Mario Kart DS + Animal Crossing combo pushed the DS into stratosphere. It sold 600k units in a single week, the highest non-launch-week sales of any console ever. The DS Lite launch in early 2006 pushed it even higher.

America: Summer 2006. Around that time both the DS Lite and Super Mario Bros. released and sales increased a lot. They increased even more later on but that was the start of the DS explosion in the US.

Europe: There's no clear date. Sales just kept going up in Europe for years. Europe also gobbled up Brain Training (unlike the US). It just kept growing.

Hope that helped and I hope I got everything right.

DSLite + price drop to $129.99 + New Super Mario Bros. I would say.

So the 3DS is tracking better than the DS in Japan even post bump DS.

3DS hasn't been out long enough to see the bigger US and Europe numbers then.

Hard to believe the DS pulled big numbers in the summer for the US in 2006.

People keep saying this, but according to VGChartz it's not true. It will probably be true by the end of the Holiday season, but not for long. It's definitely not true where software is concerned, and is unlikely to ever be.

The DS's "big jump" lasted about 4 years, so get cozy.

This.

I remember watdching the NPD and Media Create threads back in 2006 when it started getting huge. The DSLite + price drop had an unreal effect on hardware sales. Holiday 2006 was insane for the DS, as about 4.5 million units were moved in December. 2007's holiday was even better with somewhere around 8 million units.

December 2012 and 2013 is where the real 3DS trends will emerge. If it can see an increase in 2013 holiday sales my good margins, it should be noted as a good success for Nintendo. If not, you'll see the handheld start taking a lot of flak.

I remember, here in the west, the DSLite and NSMB being huge. Brain Training and Nintendogs were making a lot of buzz too. But I remember when the DSLite launching seeing everyone having them and playing Mario. And it looked so pretty in the new packaging. The 3DS should definitely look more like that model, as the Wii and WiiU do.

Great summary of it.

Combination of DSLite (march 2006), Nintendogs (apr 2005), Brain Training(2005jp, 2006rest), and NSMB (2006).

So basically as 2006 started and DSLite showed up with a couple big games.

take a look at this. 

you can see slightly after it's second holiday DS sales shot up to the 300 to 500K weekly sales in the summer and stayed there for about 4 years.  if you align DS and 3DS sales the bump in DS sales will line up with 3DS sales around this march i think.  with 3DS doing worse this holiday than last it won't be hard to imagine 3DS loosing a good 100 to 300K sales (Gen over Gen) a week in the summer.