Switch vs 3DS – VGChartz Gap Charts – March 2020 - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 April 2020 / 4,131 Views

The VGChartz Gap charts are updated monthly and each article focuses on a different gap chart. The charts include comparisons between the 7th generation and 8th generation platforms, as well as comparisons within the 8th generation. All sales are worldwide, unless otherwise stated.

Switch Vs. 3DS Global:

Gap change in latest month: 1,695,666 – Switch

Gap change over last 12 months: 7,969,789 - Switch

Total Lead: 12,389,703 – Switch

Switch Total Sales: 53,733,752

3DS Total Sales: 41,344,049

March 2020 is the 37th month that the Nintendo Switch has been available for. During the latest month the gap grew in favor of the Switch by 1.70 million units when compared to the 3DS during the same timeframe and by 7.97 million units in favor of the Switch in the last 12 months. The Switch is currently ahead of the 3DS by 12.39 million units.

The 3DS launched in February 2011 (however, 3DS sales have been aligned to March 2011, since it only launched at the end of February in Japan), while the Nintendo Switch launched worldwide in March 2017. The Switch has sold 53.73 million units, while the 3DS sold 41.34 million units during the same timeframe.

The Nintendo 3DS has sold 75.16 million units to date. The Nintendo Switch is currently 21.43 million units behind the lifetime sales of the 3DS.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

13 Comments

DaAndy (on 13 April 2020)

Actually 3DS sales were not too bad, but somehow Switch makes it look like 3DS sold rather poorly.^^ By end of march 2021 Switch maybe already has passed 3DS lifetime sales. Not bad xD

Chicho DaAndy (on 14 April 2020)

if Nintendo can make and ship enough it will do it by the end of holiday season, The question is can they? Production and distribution has been disrupted by the corona virus pandemic.

TheBraveGallade DaAndy (on 16 April 2020)

3ds did sell bad for a nintendo handheld, especially since they needed to pull the emergency price cut early on.

xMetroid (on 13 April 2020)

So Switch has now a 12.4 million lead in 3 years and is way healthier than the 3DS since it has potentially not peaked yet and has seen no price reduction. It might even get more revisions. Demand is currently so high i think it will probably peak this year. I can't see the console fall of a cliff, i think the descend will be pretty slow while the 3DS started to fade from here.

TheBraveGallade xMetroid (on 14 April 2020)

and if the demand starts falling they could just slash prices for both models. more importantly, a switch lite at 200$ or so with something like, say, mario kart pack in would do so much...