The Monster Hunter success story continues in Japan with the news that Capcom’s latest title in the series, and the first to be released on Wii, sold 520,000 copies on its first day of release, according to figures from Media Create.

And bigger news could be on the way, too, with Capcom previously indicating that Monster Hunter Tri had notched up an impressive one million pre-orders in the territory.

The success brings good tidings for Nintendo as well with Wii hardware, thanks in part to a Monster Hunter Tri bundle, tripling its weekly sales by shifting 95,357 units – making it the best selling console of the week in the process.

It was followed by DSi (74k), PSP (33k), DS Lite (12k), PS3 (9k), PS2 (3,617) and Xbox 360 (3,552).

Japan’s weekly listings also welcomed Microsoft’s Gears of War 2 for the first time. Epic’s title was able to secure sixth position in the All Formats charts after shifting 49,000 copies.

Capcom recently confirmed an early 2010 release for Monster Hunter Tri in Europe.