Nintendo consoles tend to drop like a rock on sales once their successors are out. The DS had sold a whooping 143 million before the 3DS launched, some 22 million every year, and it sold a mere 12m after that - a mere ~7.5% of its lifetime sales. I can't see the 3DS selling 8 million after its successor launches when it sold per year about half of what the DS used to do. Maybe it will end up just below or even above 70 million, but it's even more likely it ends 5-6m short of the goal.

That is true..  But in this case Nintendo was actually have trouble selling the 3ds because the DS was so much cheaper. It was Nintendo which kind of killed off the ds.  In the case of the gameboy advance I believe it had long legs into the ds lifespan. Also one needs to keep in mind that the Switch is not a replacement for the 3ds market. At least not fully. It's not a pocketable device.

Apples and Orange.

The 3DS price dropped and was close to the DS price less than one year after.

The 3DS was fully compatible with the DS while the Switch can't read 3DS or DS games.

The 3DS was fully the successor of the DS while the Switch isn't, it's an hybrid and is more replacing the Wii U.

Compare it to the Game Boy Advance, then. It's likely the best selling Nintendo console after the release of a new generation, and the DS wasn't marketed as its sucessor until it became clear it was.

The GBA was selling for less than $100 when the DS released, was less than four full years on the market, and had a new model coming out a year later. Still, it sold less than 20% of its total sales came after the DS released (15.74m out of 81.48m).

Granted, that was about 15 million (which would put the 3DS way above 70 million if it sold that much), but look at the GBA sales in the year right before the DS released - over 15 million, versus less than 7 million for the 3DS this year.

All numbers come from Nintendo's own press releases.

Depends. If GameFreak still keep mainline Pokémon games on 3DS (probably wouldn't though) 70m is a given.

The problem with DS is the 3DS are compatible with the DS games so why buy a DS when u can have a superior version. The 3DS wont have this problem since the Switch isn't backward compatible with 3DS, at least in physical form.

Depends on whether Nintendo is smart to keep stock and if the next Pokemon is still on the 3DS

I'll guess 70M

We are approaching the end of the littel guy, but he more than pulled his own. It built bridges with Ja developers, made Fire Emblem big, and helped ensure Pokemon's continued strength going into the Switchera

Won't post yet my expectation, what  I want to say is that 3DS has a big advantage compared to previous handheld consoles, it's successor ( if that thing which is being released on march 2017 really replaces it ) won't have backwards compatability, at least not in physical form...


All of the Nintendo handheld conoles have sold decently for another three years after being replaced. ( 6-8m )

Imho 72M will be the Lifetime achivement for the 3DS, I now and then hear people talking about buying a new regular DS so I think the 3DS will have similar legs, Pokémon Sun/Moon will also have a key role in selling those few milions units because people have to buy the 3DS to play the latest entry until the franchise makes the Switch (which is not guaranteed to happen with the next game, we just heard rumors, Game Freak's trackrecord is completely different).

Also to the people saying Nintendo won't produce any other 3DS unit: you're out of your mind. The 5 year cycle of the 3DS has long finished and despite that we are still getting games, Nintendo wants a secondary source of money when they move to a new console, especially when the previous device was a failure.