7th Gen Vs. 8th Gen Aligned Launch - Handhelds, January 2012 Update - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 February 2012 / 11,555 Views
Welcome to the first ‘6th Gen Vs. 7th Gen Aligned Launch – Handhelds’ article. This will be a monthly feature and it will compare the sixth generation of handhelds (DS, PSP) to their successors in the seventh generation of handhelds (3DS, Vita). In this first one, it will only take a look at the DS versus 3DS aligned launch, weekly sales and total sales. The Vita will be added once it is available Worldwide. Also once the Wii U launches an article focusing on the home consoles will also be done.
DS Vs. 3DS
Looking at the weekly sales with the launches aligned, the DS lead for four of the first six months. The DS did launch in November during the holiday period which explains its initial lead and with the 3DS launching in February / March it explains the huge lead it has in month 11. The two handhelds holiday periods are exactly three months apart. The DS will lead for the next two to three months.
Looking at the most recent month the 3DS sold 1,337,905 compared to 645,738 for the DS. The 3DS has a lead of 692,167 in month 12. Looking at the 3DS’s first December compared to the DS’s second December, the 3DS lead by 1,176,335.
Looking at the total sales the DS held its lead for its first eight months on sales, but as the 3DS entered its first holiday season it quickly took the lead. It has doubled DS sales in its first year on the market, 15.85 million compared to 7.93 million. Though as the DS entered its second holiday sales picked up and it looks like the gap will shrink and the battle between the two with aligned launches will start heating. The 3DS is currently four months ahead of the DS during the same amount of time on the market.
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Holy crap, the 3DS is already at 16 million sold? That's quite impressive!
Please don't troll the news section.
Mari kart 7 is awesome and I find the graphics to be sexy, and the new stages has cool elements.
Yes, Mario Kart 7 is indeed sweet, but Nintendo even admitted that they hired Retro Studios to get it out before christmas.
I can expect a second holyday season very strong, if Nintendo continue to produce huge games for 3DS. Waiting for Pokegold...
The 3DS has doubled the first-year sales of the best-selling handheld system ever. CLEARLY it is a failure.
"CLEARLY its sales are only due to the pricecut! Just you wait, interest will wane!"
five years later, it's the best-selling system ever "JUST YOU WAIT!"
Great for 3DS lets hope it can keep up the legs the DS had,
It is possible to add the total software sales? that'd be interesting in the comparisson
I wonder if the upcoming 2nd tier releases (Resident Evil, Metal Gear, Kid Icarus, etc.) will give the 3DS a notable boost.
Technically, 3DS is 8th gen.
Been dying for this article. Can't wait to see the PSP vs Vita aligned sales in the upcoming months.
It is possible to add the total software sales? that'd be interesting in the comparisson
I miss the PSVita and PSP in the graphs... nice article.
Well having the PSVita in the graph right now with just the Japan launch wouldn't make it look too good would it?
awesome 3ds sales
I'm sure a lot of people are like me and waiting on the inevitable 3DS lite. I would expect a MASSIVE explosion of sales when it finally gets released.
Ahh I see you've changed it now :)
DS is 7th gen not 6th, GBA is 6th, so 7th v 8th gen it#s suppose to be :P
A little rough start but with most issues addressed it looks like 3DS will be just as good or perhaps better than the DS!
I hope 3DS can hold momentum like DS did. Looking good so far, but I don't know if the 3DS will be as strong of a competitor in 2016 like DS was in 2009.
One thing id like to know is what price point was these sales sold at?
I mean was the ds The same price or more or less than the 3ds at launch? I know nintendo took a huge paycut on the 3ds to active these sales.
Although these are impressive id like to see how the 3ds would be doing at the original price
Like the accountant says, Sales look great but the CFO is not at all impress with those cash flows.
Quite sad that Theyre comparing 3ds and ds as compared to Vita vs 3ds. XD
Just sayin.
The probably will in another series (gap chartz maybe) It's still too early and vaccuous to compare Vita sales to anything for now.
It will be hard for 3DS to keep that pace, wondering what will be the games for next holiday season.
It may be time for Nintendo to pop out the casual games now, it may be time. One certainty... is that a 2D Mario is urgently on its way late this year.
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