This Week In Sales: Monster Hunter Adds Another X On The Chart

Period: The week of March 13th –  March 19th (2017)

Top-seller: Monster Hunter XX – 848,467 (3DS)

Nintendo Switch – 49,913 (Last week – 61,998)

Nintendo 2DS –  6,131 (4,094)

New Nintendo 3DS sales: 2,796 (1,227)

New Nintendo 3DS LL sales: 33,352 (18,360)

Wii U sales: 368 (430)

PlayStation 4 sales: 28,805 (28,902)

PlayStation 4 Pro: 5,826 (6,398)

PlayStation 3 sales: 2,212 (639)

PlayStation Vita sales: 8,004 (8,398)

Xbox One sales: 135 (117)

<< Last week’s software sales chart

<< How to read and understand sales

Last week, Japan had another week consisting of big releases with the follow-up to Monster Hunter Generations in Monster Hunter XX, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash, and Accel World VS Sword Art Online. Here’s the latest from Japanese sales tracker Media Create with a look at software and hardware sales from the week of March 13 through March 19, 2017.

At #1 on the list we have Monster Hunter XX that sold 848,467 copies in its debut. Let’s see how its first-week performance stacks compared to other entries from the series:

• [2004] Monster Hunter – 124,500 (PS2)
• [2005] Monster Hunter Freedom – 113,640 (PSP)
• [2006] Monster Hunter 2 – 362,173 (PS2)
• [2007] Monster Hunter Freedom 2 – 705,281 (PSP)
• [2008] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite – 880,468 (PSP)
• [2009] Monster Hunter Tri – 520,138 (Wii)
• [2010] Monster Hunter Portable 3rd – 1,950,717 (PSP)
• [2011] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – 521,959 (3DS)
• [2013] Monster Hunter 4 – 1,715,060 (3DS)
• [2014] Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – 1,446,289 (3DS)
• [2015] Monster Hunter Generations – 1,448,367 (3DS)
• [2017] Monster Hunter XX – 848,467 (3DS)

[Data and chart courtesy our good friend Ishaan. Hit him up on Twitter to talk about Monster Hunter and all-things sales.]

It’s quite evident that Monster Hunter XX didn’t live up to its expectations being the first to sell less than a million since the release of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in 2011 for 3DS. To make matters worse, Capcom was hoping to ship out two million units of Monster Hunter XX by the end of arch, but it looks like they won’t be anywhere near that goal.

Monster Hunter Generations gave the hunting game series a new twist with Hunting Arts, Hunting Styles that won over the hearts of its fans, but simply making a “G version” of it wasn’t enough to sway the majority of fans that are likely waiting on Monster Hunter 5 at this point.

Next up at #2 we have Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash with 53,747 copies sold in its debut. While it may not be as high as Senran Kagura: Estival Versus’ 84,895 debut, series producer Kenichiro Takaki was pretty happy to hear that the game topped 10,000 in digital sales on its launch date, not to mention that the game has been sold out in Japan. Overall, not bad for what some may consider a spinoff title.

At #3 and #5 we have Accel World Vs. Sword Art Online with 38,653 copies sold on PlayStation Vita and 32,016 units sold on PlayStation 4 for a combined total of 70,669. Let’s see how it stacks with other Sword Art Online debuts:

• [2013] Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment – 138,180 (PSP)
• [2014] Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment – 145,029 (PS Vita)
• [2015] Sword Art Online: Lost Song – 139,298 (PS Vita)
• [2016] Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization – 140,519 (70,871 PS4|69,458 PSV)
• [2017] Accel World Vs. Sword Art Online – 70,669 (32,016 PS4|38,653 PSV)

As you can see, it’s quite a drop in numbers for the popular Sword Art Online series. Perhaps it has something to do with the unfamiliarity of the Accel World series to most of the casual fans, or perhaps the fact that the game is just a build-on to the 2015 Sword Art Online: Lost Song with most of its basic features. It could also have something to do with there being a new release for the series each year, or just the overall decline in its popularity as it hasn’t had a running anime series in almost two years. Heck, it’s probably a good mix of all of the above.

Moving on, we have YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World, the remake of the visual novel classic, which sold 9,629 units on PS4 for #13 and 8,858 on PS Vita for #15 for a combined total of 18,487. 5pb. announced last night that the game has surpassed 40,000 in total sales with digital downloads included, so it appears to be doing very well for a visual novel game. And finally, the at #14 we have Future Card Buddyfight: Mezase! Buddy Champion! with 9,349 copies sold in its debut on 3DS.

As for hardware sales, we saw an overall increase in the 3DS family of consoles, especially the New 3DS LL going from 18,360 to 33,352. While Monster Hunter XX didn’t bring home the numbers Capcom wanted, it still showed that the series is able to move consoles on a new release. Now all we have to do is wait for Monster Hunter 5 on Switch. Speaking of Switch, it sold 49,913 units last week, meaning that it has sold 441,062 units to date in Japan going by Media Create’s numbers.

The top-20 chart for the week is as follows:

Sales data acquired from 4Gamer and Media Create.