Japan sales figures (via VGC)

PSP Feb,2007 Monster Hunter Portable 2 - 1.75 mil

PSP Mar,2008 Monster Hunter Portable 2G - 4.13 mil

PSP Dec,2010 Monster Hunter Portable 3 - 4.82 mil

3DS Dec,2011 Monster Hunter 3G - 1.76 mil

WiiU Dec,2012 Monster Hunter 3GHD - 0.18mil (home console versions have never sold too well to be fair)

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=monster+hunter

Annual poll by Dengeki Online, regarding games played most during 2012, released yesterday:

#1 Dragon Quest 10 Online (Wii)

#2 Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP)

#3 Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)

...

#9 Monster Hunter 3G (3DS)

http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/586/586748/  (Japanese)

When you suddenly lose nearly 2/3 of your audience, you have a big problem.

If you're talking about the sales crown, then no, probably not. Square will just throw a load of money behind whatever Final Fantasy releases and people will buy it regardless.

If you're talking about JRPG crown, then I honestly don't think there is one anymore. Square did have it once upon a time but during last generation it was lost. And no-one took their place. Xenoblade was good, and indeed this sequel may even be better, but there's plenty of other companies creating great stuff out there. Atlus; Media.Vision; Level 5 etc., but I don't think anyone will become the new Square, and I don't think any individual series will become the new Final Fantasy.

Isn't that because portable 3rd is similar to 3G? We should wait for MH4 to say they "lost" the audience.

So the 1st MH on 3DS sold as well as the first MH on the PSP? We should at least wait for MH4's sales before judging the sales on 3DS.

monolith soft is the next square as far as quality jrpg's are concerned. Notice I did not say square-enix, as from that merger on, sqaure-enix's games have been crap.

No, surely not. Including all RPGs WOW for sure has higher sales as the best-selling FF-game (VII) as it has even more than 10 million subscribers. Skyrim also sold way more, even with numbers from VGChartz, that does not track reliable PC-sales. So on PC Skyrim has probably much higher sales as tracked by VGC.

If you reduce it to JRPGs, surely Pokemon has higher sales.

EDIT: I should learn to read properly. You said home console sales. So WOW and Pokemon are out, only Skyrim has higher sales. So FF leads for JRPG-sales on home console.

MH3G was an improvement and addition on MH3 (Tri) from Wii, which also did fairly poorly in Japan. It added new enemies and zones, and re-added the weapons that were removed and some people were very angry about (gunlance, dual sword, bow).

I'm not screaming imminent doom for the Monster Hunter series, but the reaction to MH4 info in Japan has been fairly mediocre, with criticism for downgrading graphics from the PSP games, a strange focus on customizing otomo, and addition of new "shonen manga" weapons (bug staff and transforming "chargeaxe"-shield-sword-hammer thing). The chargeaxe in particular is looking to make several weapon types obsolete as an all-in-one.

If it is comparable to the gameplay of Xenoblade (where also big monsters walked around on the map) it is not comparable to Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter has long fights with single big monsters. You don't level but can get better equipment. You don't choose some RPG-actions in Monster Hunter but use attacks depending on the chosen weapon-type. It needs your skill as gamer and knowledge about the monster you are going to attack.

Xenoblade has much shorter fights (but a lot more of them). The same enemy gets considerably easier with better level and equipment, as usual for RPGs. Your attacks depend on the chosen character. The character attacks on itself, you choose only the actions, although you can take advantage from good positioning (back attack from shulk).

The fights are very different. That is no surprise, as Xenoblade is an RPG and Monster Hunter is ... well, a Monster-Hunting-game. The gameplay is the defining difference. Only because both have walking big creatures on big outdoor areas makes the games not similar.

in terms of quality they should be very worried and in terms of sales no. the best final fantasy game since final fantasy 10, wasnt even called " final fantasy " but was made by the series creator = " LOST ODYSSEY "....... lost odyssey is what the final fantasy series was all about, now its all about graphics and cgi, not story or characters.
i think monolith soft has the potential to be a great rpg developer for a long time too come, they have created some of my favorite rpg's = baten kaitos eternal wings and the lost ocean and xenoblade chronicles.

Thanks for the explaination on the gameplay differences... I was just going by the look of the game. The vast open world and the giant beast battles.