Japanese Hardware: Wii Sales Recede After Monster Hunter Blitz

The latest Japanese game hardware charts show Nintendo Wii sales dropping off from a peak, following the release of Monster Hunter 3, Media Create reported on Friday. Nintendo's console sold 47,140 during the week ended August 9, down from the previous week's 95,357. But despite the drop-off weekly sales were still nearly twice as high as the week before Capcom's Wii-exclusive action RPG Monster Hunter 3 released. Monster Hunter 3 sold over 520,000 units in Japan in just two days following its release on August 1. The franchise, highly popular in Japan, has sold over 9.5 million units across all series entries, according to Capcom. The drop-off moved the Wii to the number two sales slot for the week behind the Nintendo DSi, which sold 70,066. Sales of the newer handheld were down just slightly from last week's 73,710. The release of Square Enix's DS RPG Dragon Quest IX was a major sales driver for DSi, which saw weekly sales leap to 126,786 units from 51,601 week-on-week following the game's July 11 launch. The full Japanese game hardware charts for the week ended August 2 are as follows: DSi: 70,066 Wii: 47,140 PSP: 33,893 DS Lite: 8,699 PS3: 5,826 Xbox 360: 5,436 PS2: 4,601 As can be seen, PSP grabbed the third slot for the week with flat sales of 33,893. PlayStation 3 and DS Lite sales dropped from the prior week, as PS2 and Xbox 360 had slight boosts, although sales for those two consoles remained typically meager.