The GBC was meant to be like the 3DS to N3DS but difference between it and the GB is like the DS to 3DS, that's why it sold on an extended level it was essentially a successor.

Do you have a URL for these old numbers? Nintendo's pretty informative chart only goes down to 1998:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library/historical_data/pdf/consolidated_sales_e1509.pdf

I can't post links with this phone, but just Google "Nintendo yearly shipments" and the first link is a neogaf thread by aquamarine with all the numbers.

There is no way to have an accurate generation vs generation comparison with a two generation device unless u separate it's sales by generation.

And what Gameboy sold from 1998 onward is irrelevant to Nintendo's market position from 1989-1995, which is what I'm comparing.

Aside from ignoring the Game boy color, you are comparing 2 very different points in the indutry's lifespan.

The gameboy and snes existed in a time where they were following the industry's growth out of the not-so-long-ago crash. Basically, the gameboy and the snes had a much harder time selling because the industry itself was a lot smaller than it is now. They were the leaders of both respective sectors with a huge market share on the industry.

Now however, the industry has grown significantly, allowing for consoles to reach higher numbers easier.

comparing sales of 30 years ago is not a good metric of performance since the industry has greatly shifted since then

Super NES didn't launch in the West until 1991 (and I don't think in Europe until 1992), so you're kinda cutting the SNES short by drawing 1995 as some arbitrary cut off point.

Game Boy sales were a bit of an anomaly at this time too as the brand had weak sales in 94/95 (this is the only reason a crazy idea like the Virtual Boy was allowed) ... after Pokemon, GB sales would stabilize more to the portable shipments that Nintendo is accustomed to.

Interesting little point -- from 1990-1996, Japan was the worst market for the Game Boy by a large margin, and Europe was the best.

Nintendo was still selling a crazy amount of NES hardware too during this time period. They sold almost 12 million NES in North America alone from April 1990-April 1996 for example. 

This is kinda hard to compare, because the NES for example didn't even have its peak shipment in Europe until 1991/92 for example. Nintendo sold another 23 million (roughly) from April 1990-April 1996. 

So really between April 1990-April 1996 I have approx. 109 million in hardware shipments (NES/SNES + Game Boy). 

Numbers based on this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=701305

The reason for the odd spikes in sales back in the 90s for Europe was the buggered treatment we got from gaming, we'd often get games a year and a half to 2 years later. Gaming for many Europeans was a casual affair if you were consoles in the 80s and early 90s, a large number of games even skipped the region, today you don't really get as many staggered releases or they're nowhere near as bad unless the company is called Namco, so sales in the modern era would have more stability in their patterns.

The's also the case of the releases in EU weren't straight forward, countries were customers in a que with a number this is why NES had 2 launches in EU with the first in 86 and the second in 87, I'm glad Sony ended that shit as that's something no one can take away from them they brought out a more stabel release approach.

The GB had a slow start and then it sold a lot so the 3DS won't be able to beat the GB..

Yeah, I get to the same 109 million hardware shipments in this time frame.

Added the old numbers from this thead to Nintendo's official numbers since 1998 and get this graph of total hardware shipments:

1994 + 1995 with ~10 million units each are the lowpoints after the '80s, last year's 12.6 million units aren't that far away and this fiscal year they could reach 10 million again.

Well if u add late life NES ales than its only fair to add in late life Wii/DS sales.