DS sells 50 million units worldwide: can it beat the Game Boy franchise?

The fastest-selling videogame system of all time continues to break records across the globe. The Nintendo DS has sold over 50 million units worldwide. Certain games have considerably helped to reach this milestone (Pokémon, anyone?), and the Touch Generations series has done its part, as well. Rough estimates indicate that one out of 130 people in the world own a DS. In the US and Canada, one out of twenty-two people have a dual-screened system, and in Japan it’s one out of six. 50 million is quite the number, but let’s compare DS sales with previous Nintendo handhelds. This chart shows handheld sales, in millions, of the DS / DS Lite, Game Boy Advance systems, Game Boy and Game Boy Color systems, and the entire Game Boy franchise:

As you can see, the DS is on its way to selling more units than the Game Boy Advance franchise, in about half the time of availability (three years against six and a half). The DS franchise has sold just over a quarter of the entire Game Boy franchise sales. Can the DS sell over 120 million and beat the old-school Game Boys? Or better yet; can it sell over 200 million and surpass the entire Game Boy franchise sales? Time will tell.