Personally, I believe the 2600 was just a victim of age. There were a glut of shit games for it, don't get me wrong, but it's not like we were buying dozens of carts a week. We usually had 5-20 carts, with about half of them played regularly.
There was also the push to CDs, later, that doomed a lot of cart consoles. Not only was the media better, and cheaper, it was also "the new thing".
It was my last console. After that, PCMASTERRACE...ok..Vic-20/C64/Amiga/8088MASTERRACE. lol
The Atari was released in September 1977, so by 1983 it definitely was a bit long in the tooth. Arcade hardware continued to progress - then Nintendo hit the sweet spot in late 1985 with its resolution, colors, sprites, and cost (and licensing agreements because the Sega Master System was slightly better hardware wise but didn't do as well in the U.S.)
Six good years is a long time for any console in the US.
If you watch the documentaries with the original developers and CEO they expected the life of the system to be ~2 years. At that point they would refresh with maybe 100-200 games total for the system. But they realized they could play a different game and lock competitors out by buying up key components or tying up component makers and keep it going for longer. By the time 83/84 rolled around the mid 70s system was looking and sounding really dated next to a ti99 or c64 (with similar price points). It did not help that former atari devs were starting their own shops and cranking out games too. That 4-8 week cadence and they were blasting games out.
Nintendo with its seal of approval was to keep the number of games down and the quality up. But most importantly get in a percentage of every single sale.
There was also the push to CDs, later, that doomed a lot of cart consoles. Not only was the media better, and cheaper, it was also "the new thing".
It was my last console. After that, PCMASTERRACE...ok..Vic-20/C64/Amiga/8088MASTERRACE. lol
Anecdotal, sure, but I was there. :)