Monster Hunter 4 sales top 1.8 million in two days

Monster Hunter 4's first week on the Japanese sales charts was a short one of only two days, but it still managed to blow through most of its initial shipment.

According to Famitsu, about 1.875 million copies of the 3DS exclusive were sold in the first two days; that's a fair old whack of the estimated initial shipment of 2 million.

The RPG drew about 1 million pre-orders, and Capcom hopes to sell 2.8 million copies by March.

Some of this year's best-selling 3DS titles like Tomodachi Collection and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are yet to top this figure. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3.4 million) and Mario Kart 7 (2.1 million) are the only two 3DS games currently in the charts to have topped it, and both have had over a year to do so.

Famitsu noted that 3DS hardware sales spiked, too, with 298,000 units sold over the full week. Last week, only 80,000 3DS and 3DS XL units were sold.

This seems like a good time to examine the Minster Hunter sales phenomenon, as harvested from various Media Create charts and Famitsu's figures, and compiled by NeoGAF members - for starters, the 3DS only sold about 371,000 units at launch, and a further 214,000 after its price cut. At its peak holiday sales week, it shifted 510,000 units - so Monster Hunter 4 is about three-fifths of a holiday's worth of sales.

Monster Hunter 3, which released in various forms on 3DS, PSP, PS3, Wii and Wii U, was a massive seller every time it turned up. For example, Monster Hunter Freedom 3 sold over 1.9 million copies in its first five days on sale, generating 325,000 PSP sales that week.

Thanks, Vooks.