Good news if you have this console gathering dust: its prices have skyrocketed, although no one knows why
The Nintendo 3DS has increased in value, and some models now cost more than they did when they were first released.
It sold millions of units between 2010 and 2020, but prices for the Nintendo 3DS on the second-hand market have only continued to rise. The Kyoto-based company’s handheld console has skyrocketed in price, reaching a level similar to its initial launch price (and in some cases, even higher). Why has its price increased so much? The truth is that no one has come up with a plausible explanation.
According to Kotaku, the Nintendo 3DS XL could be purchased for less than $100 last year, whereas now it is difficult to find one for less than $250. The New Nintendo 3DS XL model, which was launched in 2014, costs even more, with prices skyrocketing to $350 in some cases. In other words, it is more expensive than when it was officially launched.
3DS Prices Are Spiking
— Pirat_Nation 🔴 (@Pirat_Nation) December 29, 2025
This Decade-Old Nintendo Handheld Is Now Worth Almost as Much as a Switch 2
New 3DS XL models are often selling for $200 to $350 used.
Prices are likely to keep climbing. pic.twitter.com/s0SZJecvzM
How many Nintendo 3DS units have been sold?
The Nintendo 3DS is far from being Mario’s company’s best-selling console, but a total of 75.94 million units were sold throughout its life cycle. It surpassed the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube, but it is far from the figures achieved by the Wii (110.63 million), Game Boy (118.69 million), Nintendo Switch (over 150 million and counting), and Nintendo DS (154.02 million). It also failed to match the sales of the Game Boy Advance (81.51 million).
Related stories
Not just Nintendo 3DS. In recent years, the price of retro video games has skyrocketed in general.
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