Pre-orders for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate in Japan were around 811,000 copies as of last week, according to estimates published by Japanese sales tracker Media Create. As of this week, orders for the game have climbed to 900,000 copies.
Being an updated version of Monster Hunter 4 rather than an entirely new game, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate hasn’t seen as many pre-orders in Japan as that title, which saw 1.177 million pre-orders prior to its release in September 2013.
That said, Media Create expect that 4 Ultimate should be able to match the initial sales of Monster Hunter 4 upon release. When Monster Hunter 4 was released, it sold through 91.96% of its shipment, which means that the vast majority of copies sent out to retailers actually ended up being to consumers instead of sitting on store shelves.
This is a stat that Media Create refer to as “digestibility”—or in other words, sell-through. Keeping in mind the high digestibility of Monster Hunter 4, initial sales of 4 Ultimate should be able to match that game, provided that Capcom ship enough copies.
While Capcom have not said how many copies of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate they expect to sell in Japan alone, they expect to sell 3.9 million copies of the game worldwide by March 31st, 2015.
