Monster Hunter‘s growth and success in the west continues. The series, which has been famously dominant in Japan, usually did not use to sell a whole lot in Europe and North America- but that’s been changing of late. After Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate ended up selling over a million units in the west last year, Monster Hunter Generations appears to be off to a flying start, too.
Nintendo is reporting that for the month of July, the just released Monster Hunter Generations was the highest selling game in North America- that’s right, it topped the NPD software charts for the month, selling an estimated 165,000 copies at retail (and of course, with more copies sold digitally). For a series that used to be highly niche, this is a major victory, and it all but guarantees that Monster Hunter shall continue to stick with Nintendo systems going forward.
The true victor in July, however, was another monster franchise- Nintendo’s 3DS Pokemon games saw, like in the rest of the world, increased sales on the back of Pokemon GO‘s massive success. Nintendo reports that Pokemon X/Y and OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire all saw major growth- OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire sold 80% more year on year, while X/Y sold a staggering 200% more than they did last year.
Overall, Nintendo saw some major inroads with their software this month: games playable on Nintendo systems claimed five of the top 11 spots on the July best-sellers list. These include Monster Hunter Generations from Capcom at No. 1, Minecraft: Wii U Edition from Microsoft at No. 6, Pokémon OmegaRuby at No. 8, Pokémon AlphaSapphire at No. 10, and Kirby: Planet Robobot at No. 11.
For Nintendo, with the impending launch of Pokemon Sun/Moon later this year, all of this can only be a good thing.
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