Big in Japan December 6-12: Monster Hunter Portable 3

Along with the flagging rhythm genre, slumping sales of Wii games and portable titles have been blamed for the US game industry's 2010 woes. However, the picture in Japan is considerably different. Media Create released its Japanese sales figures for the week of December 6-12, and games for the PSP, DS, and Wii claimed eight of the top 10 chart spots.

Monster Hunter Portable 3 dominated in its second week of release, adding 629,541 copies to its first-week total of 1.95 million copies sold. Capcom's multiplayer-focused action game far outsold the closest competition, with the Studio Ghibli-Level Five collaboration Ninokuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi selling 179,548 copies in its week of release. The DS role-playing game narrowly beat out Wii platformer Donkey Kong Country Returns, which led Nintendo's offerings with 163,310 copies sold.

Nintendo had a strong week on the whole. In addition to Donkey Kong Country Returns, the company claimed the middle of the charts with Pokemon Black and White, Mario Sports Mix, Wii Party, Super Mario All-Stars, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem in fourth through eighth place, respectively. The final two spots were occupied by the PlayStation 3's only two representatives on the chart, Namco Bandai's Tales of Graces F and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

On the hardware front, the PSP easily claimed the top spot with a boost from the Monster Hunter Portable 3 launch, even if the 158,029 systems it sold was less than half the previous week's total. The Wii retained second place with 79,424 systems sold, while the DSi and DSi LL (DSi XL in the West) leapfrogged the PS3 to take third and fourth place. Finally, after an extended breather in the middle of the pack, the PSP Go returned to the bottom of the charts, selling just 1,904 systems.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF DECEMBER 6-12, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. Monster Hunter Portable 3 / Capcom / PSP / 629,541
2. Ninokuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi/ Level Five / DS / 170,548
3. Donkey Kong Country Returns / Nintendo / Wii / 163,310
4. Pokemon Black and White / The Pokemon Company / DS / 79,819
5. Mario Sports Mix / Nintendo / Wii / 68,430
6. Wii Party / Nintendo / Wii / 55,412
7. Super Mario All-Stars / Nintendo / Wii / 53,670
8. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem / Nintendo / DS / 51,828
9. Tales of Graces F / Namco Bandai / PS3 / 39,640
10. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood / Ubisoft / PS3 / 36,098

Hardware:
PSP - 158,029
Wii - 79,424
DSi LL - 59,709
DSi - 55,993
PS3 - 41,882
Xbox 360 - 3,695
DS Lite - 3,309
PS2 - 2,054
PSP Go - 1,904