Japan is already hunting down monsters

Wii U launched in Japan on Saturday, a whole three weeks after North America got its hands on the new console. As you'd expect Nintendo's homeland went wild for it, and that's been reflected in the opening weekend's sales.

According to Famitsu Wii U sold 308,570 units in just two days (8th and 9th December). The best selling game was unsurprisingly New Super Mario Bros. U with 170,563 copies sold — so around 55% of Wii U owners in Japan have themselves a copy of the latest 2D Mario game. Almost as popular was Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate which shifted 110,159 copies, meaning over a third of Wii U owners are out hunting; Nintendo Land, which was not bundled in any packs in Japan, sold 78,461 copies.

To put these figures into perspective, Wii U in the UK sold 40,000 units at launch, a small figure compared to Japan but apparently influenced by limited stock availability. It took North America a whole week to rack up 400,000 sales, something Japan almost surpassed in a single weekend.

Nintendo consoles seem to be enduringly popular in Japan. The 3DS is currently outselling all other platforms by more than 2.5 times in the Land of the Rising Sun, and it appears that the Wii U could potentially be on course for a good run as well.

[source famitsu.com, via siliconera.com]