Monster Hunter 4 Launch Highlighted in Tsutaya Sales Charts

Japanese retailer Tsutaya released their sales charts for the last week, giving us a cross section look at total sales for the country. It’s comparable to Gamestop revealing their top selling games in advance of NPD’s report.

In order, the top 20 games are

1. Monster Hunter 4 – 3DS
2. AKB1/149 Renai Sosenkyo Special Edition – PS3
3. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle – PSP
4. Splinter Cell: Blacklist – PS3
5. AKB1/149 Renai Sosenkyo – PS3
6. Brothers Conflict: Brilliant Blue – PSP
7. Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life – 3DS
8. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team – 3DS
9. Killzone: Mercenary – Vita
10. Puppeteer – PS3
11. Ragnarok Odyssey Ace – Vita
12. Uta no Prince Sama: MUSIC 2
13. Tomodachi Collection: New Life – 3DS
14. Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn – PS3
15. Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate – PS3
16. Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 3DS
17. Youkai Watch – 3DS
18. Lost Planet 3 – PS3
19. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – PS3
20. Luigi’s Mansion 2 – 3DS

As you can see, major Western releases Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Killzone: Mercenary, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II made the list, but the big story here is Monster Hunter 4, which had a huge launch over the weekend.

Outside of this, the persistence of games like Uta no Prince Sama: MUSIC2 and Brothers Conflict: Brilliant Blue shows female gamers in Japan have some spending power in that market. This does not preclude them from buying general audiences or even male-marketed games, rather, that games made specifically for them actually sell well and are a worthwhile investment for developers there. I guess smartphones have not quite cornered that niche yet.

Source: VGChartz