Five years on, Nintendo 3DS passes 60m sales milestone
Far less than DS, but far more than Vita.
3DS has now notched up 60m sales, Nintendo announced last night.
While a significant milestone, this still places 3DS around 20m short of the Game Boy Advance and a whopping 94m short of the DS.
There's still some life in 3DS yet - Nintendo clearly plans on supporting the device into next year via the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon this Christmas.
However, sales are tailing off - 3DS is now more than five years old and Nintendo is now committed to new Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing games for iOS/Android platforms. Both titles are due this autumn.
The rise of mobile phone gaming has undoubtedly had a huge impact on Nintendo's handheld market. That said, 3DS has performed far, far better in this climate than its rival, PlayStation Vita.
Sony stopped releasing individual hardware estimates a long time ago, although the Vita is widely accepted to have sold just a fraction of Nintendo's machine.
Until Nintendo announces its replacement, 3DS remains a relatively cheap piece of kit with an amazing game library. Time will tell how many more units it can shift.
