Animal Crossing 3DS sells 721k in Japanese opening week
Propels 3DS to outsell Vita by margin of 39 to one.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf has notched up an eye-watering 721,786 sales during its opening week.
That number doesn't include digital downloads from the 3DS eShop. Early indications show this may account for up to 80,000 more.
Famitsu's latest Japanese chart numbers (via NeoGAF) reveal a huge spike in 3DS hardware sales corresponding to Animal Crossing's launch. 168,662 3DS units were sold between 5th and 11th November, double that of the preceding week.
Astonishingly, lifetime sales of the 3DS in Japan (now just over 8 million) look set to overtake lifetime sales of the PlayStation 3 (8.47 million) in the next few weeks.
PlayStation Vita again sank to its lowest ebb, a week on from another lifetime low. Just 4263 bought one in Japan, down from 5368 the week before.
Elsewhere in the chart Halo 4 launched with sales of 31,467 - no mean feat for an Xbox 360 exclusive in Japan.
Western fans of Animal Crossing must wait until next year for their copy. New Leaf is currently labelled with a vague "first half of 2013" launch date in Europe.