Wii sales triple as Monster Hunter Tri tops Japanese chart

Monster Hunter Tri has sold 520,000 copies in just one day in Japan, taking it straight to the top of the latest all-formats software chart.

In response, Wii sales almost tripled in the region taking it to the top of the hardware chart. In total, sales of the console were up a massive 297 per cent, from 23,995 the week prior, to 95,357.

The Wii game took the top position from the record-breaking Dragon Quest IX, which sold 2.3 million units during its first week on sale, making it the fastest selling DS game to date. After spending most of July topping the charts however, the game's sales - down to 180,000 units this week - weren't enough to see off fellow heavyweight series Monster Hunter.

As well as Monster Hunter Tri, the chart saw five other new entries. Sega's Puyo Puyo 7 reached a début number five position, Gears of Wars 2 was released, selling 49,000 copies to get to number six and Hisshou Pachinko sold 42,000 to reach number seven.

PSP title Armored Core 3 Portable sold 41,000 and entered the chart at number eight and another PSP title, ToHeart 2 Portable Double Pack entered at number ten.

Nintendo titles Tomodachi Connection and Wii Sports Resort both lost one chart place, dropping to numbers three and four respectively.

In the hardware chart, Wii was the only console to see a significant change in retail numbers with sales staying fairly consistent for the other platforms.

Nintendo DS numbers totalled 85,737, which was a slight drop on 92,747 the week prior. PlayStation Portable moved down a chart position due to the Wii's popularity, but sales were still up to 33,049 from 30,523, while PlayStation 3 sales dropped slightly from 8997 to 8760.

The full Media Create software sales chart for the week ending August 2 is as follows:

01 Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)
02 Dragon Quest IX (DS)
03 Tomodachi Connection (DS)
04 Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
05 Puyo Puyo 7 (DS)
06 Gears of Wars 2 (Xbox 360)
07 Hisshou Pachinko: Pachi-Slot Kouraku Series Vol 14 (PS2)
08 Armored Core 3 Portable (PSP)
09 Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! Happy Richie Oosouji (DS)
10 ToHeart 2 Portable Double Pack (PSP)
The full hardware chart is as follows:

01 Nintendo Wii - 95,357
02 Nintendo DS - 85,737
03 PlayStation Portable - 33,049
04 PlayStation 3 - 8760
05 PlayStation 2 - 3617
06 Xbox 360 - 3552

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...japanese-chart