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