We call this "the Monster Hunter effect"

With Monster Hunter 3 G, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 all out now in Japan, it's no surprise the system's sales have picked up significantly, but according to Andriasang it's outstripping Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's predictions.

Just two weeks ago we reported 3DS had sold nearly 3 million units in Japan; now the machine is potentially another two weeks away from 4 million. Last week's sales of 390,000 were even higher than Monster Hunter's launch, and put the console at around 3.6m life to date in Japan.

In December Satoru Iwata stated Nintendo expects to hit 4m 3DS consoles in Japan before the end of February. Now it appears the machine could even hit the milestone before the end of 2011.

[source andriasang.com]