A few weeks after the Square Enix RPG
Dragon Quest IX drove Nintendo DSi sales through the roof in Japan, another third-party game, Capcom's
Monster Hunter 3, helped quadruple weekly Wii sales, tracking firm
Media Create said Friday.
Japanese sales of the Wii for the week ended August 2 were 95,357, up from about 24,000 units
the week prior. Capcom's
Monster Hunter franchise is hugely popular in Japan, and previously appeared on PlayStation 2 and PSP.
Monster Hunter 3 is the first time the franchise has come to a Nintendo console, and Nintendo appears to be reaping the benefits.
Capcom's website says the
Monster Hunter franchise has sold 9.5 million units in total.
Monster Hunter 3 sold over 520,000 units in just two days.
DSi sales dropped week-on-week to 73,710 from 80,362. While weekly DSi sales continue to recede in recent weeks, they're still 57 percent higher than they were compared to the week just prior to
Dragon Quest IX's release. Including sales of the DS Lite, total DS sales were 85,737.
With the Wii rising to the top of the hardware charts, Sony's PSP dropped to third place for the week with 33,049. PS3, PS2, and Xbox 360 rounded out the charts. The full Japanese game hardware charts for the week ended August 2 are as follows:
Wii: 95,357
DSi: 73,710
PSP: 33,049
DS Lite: 12,027
PS3: 8,760
PS2: 3,617
Xbox 360: 3,552
