Japanese Charts - Monster Hunter triumphs again, 3DS still spiking

News by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on Sept. 2, 2011

The rumblings of the upcoming release crunch are already visible in this week's Japanese charts, but while the 3DS stole the hardware sales glory and a PS3 game nabbed top spot on the charts, elsewhere it's all about the PSP.

Software
A spate of new releases livened up the dully static results of the last few weeks, with Tecmo Koei of particular note, scoring two top five places with spin-off versions of its Warriors series.

But it was Monster Hunter that took the crown. Echoing its incredible, chart-dominating performance on PSP, the first entry in the Japanese exclusive PSP remaster series managed almost 300,000 sales in just three days on sale. The next strongest performer, Black Rock Shooter, had nearly a third of that garnered over the same period.

Rhythm Heaven remains a strong performer for the Wii, as does Wii Sports Resort, but Nintendo also maintained a strong chart presence with Pokemon and Ocarina of Time.

Below you’ll find Media Create’s top 20 sales chart for the week ending August 28, 2011. Last week’s figures can be found here

Monster Hunter Freedom 3 HD Ver. (PS3) - 287,829 (new)
Black Rock Shooter: The Game # (Image Epoch) {2011.08.25} (¥6.279) - 105,277 (new)
Mobile Suit Gundam: New Giren's Ambition (PSP) - 75,611 (new)
Samurai Warriors 3: Empires # (PS3) - 70,254 (new)
Dynasty Warriors 7: Special (PSP) - 25,308 (new)
Rhythm Heaven (Wii) - 25,063
Monster Hunter Diary: Pokapoka Felyne G (PSP) - 23,151
Kirby Mass Attack (DS) - 18,901
Pokemon Rumble Blast (3DS) - 15,764
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)- 13,423
Wii Sports Resort with Remote Plus (Wii) - 12,760
Suite PreCure: Melody Collection (DS) - 12,567
Durarara!! 3way Standoff: Alley # (PSP)- 10,454
Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Toki to Sekai no Meikyuu # (PSP) - 10,156 (new)
Toriko: Gourmet Survival (PSP) - 9,662
J-League Pro Soccer Club! 7: Euro+ (PSP) - 8,367
Taiko Drum Master Portable DX (PSP) - 8,028
Persona 3 Portable (PSP)- 7,176 (new)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) - 6,560 (new)
Pokemon Black / White (DS) - 6,512

Hardware

Enthusiasm for the PlayStation 3 price cut seems to be holding steady with around 30,000 sales - up from pre-price cut levels of around 20,000 - but the 3DS is definitely ruling the roost with twice that under its belt.

Still, it's another significant drop off, down from over 100,000 last week and almost 200,000 the week before. Nintendo will be hoping to maintain the spike, but it'll need a software boost - the 3DS managed just two entires. A number of new announces - and, possibly, a hardware revision - are expected at pre-TGS events as well as the show itself. The latter rumours may have Japanese consumers hedging their bets.

Japanese hardware sales, August 22 – August 28, 2011 (combined SKUs)