Monster Hunter 3 for the Wii was unleashed in Japan with a bang, shooting straight to the top of software charts with over half a million in unit sales just one day after launch on August 1st. Capcom's latest entry in their wildly popular online action game franchise succeeds in dethroning Dragon Quest IX for the week ending August 2nd, though Square Enix's DS RPG currently has over 3.5 million in lifetime unit sales to its name.

It remains to be seen if MH3 can keep up the momentum, though the franchise's staying power in Japan cannot be underestimated.  Capcom late last week confirmed it had already shipped one million copies of MH3 to retailers across Japan, so it's certainly expecting big things from the new entry.

Monster Hunter 3's strong first week sales naturally had a positive effect on the Wii itself. Weekly hardware sales for Nintendo's platform quadrupled from the previous week in conjunction with MH3's launch, and unit sales were further bolstered by the release of a new, black-colored version of the Wii. Fans could even pick up a special black Wii bundle which included MH3.