Japanese Charts: 3DS sees biggest sales week ever

News by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on Dec. 15, 2011

Media Create's weekly release of Japanese sales figures revealed the titan that is Monster Hunter still has the power to wow, propelling the 3DS to new heights. Meanwhile, the most Western of Western RPGs won local hearts.

Monstrously good sales
The 3DS had its strongest single sales week since its launch in March this year, largely on the back of Monster Hunter 3G, which sold over half a million units. The game is yet another version of Munster Hunter Tri, which has already shifted millions of units on PSP, PlayStation 3 and Wii.

Mario Kart 7 sales continued to be strong, although significantly down from last week's stellar effort, and Super Mario 3D Land managed to retain third position, granting the 3DS a trifecta at the top of the charts.

Elsewhere, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim had a strong week, shifting over 100,000 units across both major consoles. It's a gratifying result for a game so divorced from JRPG conventions, and even managed to ensure the Xbox 360 got a spot in the charts - a rare occurrence.

See the full software chart below. Last week's figures can be found here.

Media Create Software Top 20, December 5-11

[3DS] 01. Monster Hunter 3G (Capcom, 12/10): 521,959 - NEW
[3DS] 02. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12/01): 183,834 (607,453)
[3DS] 03. Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 11/03): 89,743 (724,611)
[PS3] 04. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Bethesda, 12/10): 75,865 - NEW
[PS3] 05. Gundam Extreme VS (Namco Bandai, 12/01): 56,584 (406,340)
[NDS] 06. Magician's Quest: The Merchant's Store of Sorcery (Konami, 12/10): 46,042 - NEW
[PS3] 07. Dragon Ball Ultimate Blast (Namco Bandai, 12/08): 44,593 - NEW
[Wii] 08. Kirby Wii (Nintendo, 10/27): 44,570 (327,487)
[360] 09. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Bethesda, 12/08): 37,037 - NEW
[Wii] 10. Just Dance Wii (Nintendo, 10/13): 30,935 (279,272)
[Wii] 11. Wii Party (Nintendo, 07/08): 30,826 (2,086,603)
[Wii] 12. Poke Park 2 (Pokemon, 11/12): 30,512 (120,189)
[Wii] 13. Mario & Sonic AT London Olympics (Nintendo, 12/08): 30,222 - NEW
[PSP] 14. A Certain Scientific Railgun (ASCII, 12/08): 29,016 - NEW
[NDS] 15. Metal Max 2 Reloaded (Kadokawa Games, 12/08): 24,233 - NEW
[Wii] 16. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo, 11/11): 23,163 (703,242)
[Wii] 17. Taiko Drum Master Wii Ultimate Version (Namco Bandai, 11/23): 21,471 (70,237)
[Wii] 18. Zelda Skyward Sword (Nintendo, 11/23): 19,947 (247,116)
[NDS] 19. One Piece Gigant Battle! 2 (Namco Bandai, 11/17): 18,696 (179,052)
[Wii] 20. Fortune Street Wii (Square Enix, 12/01): 16,580 (44,220)

Hardware
The 3DS dominated this week, with hardware sales rocketing up. Last week Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was excited about the system approaching the 3 million mark, overtaking the DS in terms of week-by-week sales and thereby ahead of one of the best selling consoles in the industry's history. It must be champagne time at Ninty this week with a further 350,000 sales pushing the handheld well past that milestone.

It was also confirmed overnight that the handheld had sold 200,000 units in Australia since as of its 37th week, making it the fastest selling console in the country ever.

In other Big N news, the Wii had a good week, coming in at third place, thanks to a software chart dominated by lower-selling but numerous entries for the ageing console.

Otherwise it was business as usual, with the PSP sitting near the top and the PS2 at the bottom, but the Xbox 360 nearly tripled sales this week - probably thanks to Skyrim again.