Monster Hunter XX Switch falls short of sales expectations
But still tops Japanese weekly chart and helps to more than treble console's sales
Monster Hunter XX Nintendo Switch Version debuted at No.1 in the Japanese charts this week, but the news isn't quite as positive as Capcom might have hoped.
According to sales tracker Media Create, the game sold 84,277 units in its first week - which Siliconera notes is the lowest launch performance for a Monster Hunter game in recent years. The Switch port managed just one tenth of the week one sales by the 3DS version, which shifted 848,467 copies when it launched earlier this year.
Obviously, the Nintendo Switch has a much smaller installbase than the 3DS but it's a disappointing start given the series' historic popularity in Japan.
Slightly more worrying is that Capcom has previously said the performance of Monster Hunter on Switch might dictate how much the publisher supports the new Nintendo console. So far, the firm has only released or promised ports of previous games for Switch, including Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers and the upcoming re-release of Resident Evil Revelations and its sequel.
GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Capcom for clarification on its Switch strategy going forwards.
In lighter news, sales of Monster Hunter XX did help boost Switch sales again with just under 70,000 units sold. Not only is this more than three times the 22,000 sold last week, it's also more than all other games hardware combined in this week's charts. It was also the only device to increase its sales week-on-week.
Elsewhere in the software charts, another 54,000 sales for Splatoon 2 pushes the multiplayer shooter past the 1m mark. Media Create's data suggests Switch has sold more than 1.5m units since launch, meaning one in three Switch owners have purchased Splatoon 2 at retail.