Nintendo 3DS

This Week In Sales: Monster Hunter 4.

Period: The week of September 9th – September 15th (2013)

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Top-seller: Monster Hunter 4 – 1,715,060

Nintendo 3DS sales: 40,092 | Total sales: 8,603,550

Nintendo 3DS XL sales: 236,700 | Total sales: 3,989,793

PlayStation Vita sales: 6,020 | Total sales: 1,829,737

Wii U sales: 5,003 | Total sales: 1,072,902

<< Last week’s software sales chart

 

Last week, Capcom released the much-anticipated Monster Hunter 4 in Japan. The game was released on Saturday, September 14th, and sold a whopping 1,715,060 copies in its first two days on store shelves. Here’s how that stacks up against previous Monster Hunter games:

 

(2005) Monster Hunter Freedom [PSP] – 233,783

(2007) Monster Hunter Freedom 2 [PSP] – 705,281

(2008) Monster Hunter Freedom Unite [PSP] – 880,468

(2010) Monster Hunter Portable 3rd [PSP] – 1,950,717

(2011) Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate [3DS] – 521,959

 

As you can see, the highest-debuting Monster Hunter game to date is still Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. That said, it bears mentioning that Portable 3rd had five days of sales recorded at launch, whereas Monster Hunter 4 had just two.

 

Additionally, Monster Hunter 4’s 1.7 million figure doesn’t take into account sales of the game through the Nintendo eShop as a download. We know for a fact that the game has sold a significant number of copies through downloads as it is currently ranked #3 on the Nintendo eShop’s lifetime software chart. Since Monster Hunter Portable 3rd had no download version at launch, its 1.95 million figure accounts for all copies sold, meaning that Monster Hunter 4’s total launch sales are likely very close, if not more than Portable 3rd’s within the same span of time.

 

In the months ahead, we expect Monster Hunter 4 and the upcoming Pokémon X and Pokémon Y to help the growth of other Nintendo 3DS software, too, especially with the holiday season just a couple of months away. New buyers picking up the 3DS hardware will mean further opportunities for popular 3DS games to find new homes, and it should be interesting to see what sales look like between now and the end of the year.

 

The top-20 chart for the week was as follows:

 

Lw Tw Title Weekly Sales Total Sales Sys. Publisher
New 01. Monster Hunter 4 1,715,060 New 3DS Capcom
New 02. AKB 1/149: Love Election 27,052 New PS3 Namco Bandai
New 03. Brothers Conflict Brilliant Blue 15,297 New PSP Idea Factory
06. 04. Tomodachi Collection: New Life 10,530 1,431,527 3DS Nintendo
01. 05. Uta no ☆ Prince-Sama: Music 2 10,343 78,758 PSP Broccoli
07. 06. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team 9,428 302,594 3DS Nintendo
03. 07. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle 8,906 454,343 PS3 Namco Bandai
09. 08. Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life 8,822 264,131 3DS Namco Bandai
02. 09. Splinter Cell: Blacklist 8,252 30,677 PS3 Ubisoft
10. 10. Youkai Watch 7,791 172,022 3DS Level 5
13. 11. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 7,348 3,410,090 3DS Nintendo
14. 12. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon 5,352 896,600 3DS Nintendo
08. 13. Killzone Mercenary 4,304 15,356 PSV Sony
19. 14. Mario Kart 7 4,195 2,120,291 3DS Nintendo
11. 15. Ragnarok Odyssey Ace 3,969 44,975 PSV GungHo
04. 16. Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate 3,566 22,174 PS3 Tecmo Koei
12. 17. Puppeteer 3,503 12,403 PS3 Sony
22. 18. New Super Mario Bros. 2 3,400 2,094,152 3DS Nintendo
20. 19. Taiko no Tatsujin: Super Splendid Edition 3,390 560,681 Wii Namco Bandai
21. 20. Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies 3,336 339,000 3DS Capcom

 

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer, Media Create and Geimin.net.

Ishaan Sahdev
About The Author
Ishaan specializes in game design/sales analysis. He's the former managing editor of Siliconera and wrote the book "The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History". He also used to moonlight as a professional manga editor. These days, his day job has nothing to do with games, but the two inform each other nonetheless.

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