Found this very surprising, take a look from the latrest pre-order chart

19	Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (3DS) Nintendo, Fighting	2	6,796	58,980
20	Hyrule Warriors (WiiU) Nintendo, Action	1	14,211	58,470

This WILL do better in the west than Japan, no doubt in my mind for that

Good sign, but take VGC pre-order numbers with a grain of salt

Well, the Zelda name sells in the West.

Hyrule Warriors appears to be more successful than what most people were anticipating it would be.
This is an example of how exclusives tend to sell well on Nintendo consoles and for the most part they have good legs as well.
I can easily see Hyrule Warriors passing the 1 million mark lifetime sales.

Maybe 3DS owners don't like to preorder.

Like me!  I download all my 3DS games.

Fixed that for ya.

Exactly.. The pre-order charts aren't known for being very accurate! :/

I really wouldn't be shocked if this is accurate. Hyrule Warriors is sort of a niche game, with a limited edition that would encourage preorders. There were also some costumes as preorder incentives. I love Smash, but I didn't preorder it, because

a) I'm still not sure if I should download or physically but it.

and

b) I'm not worried about it selling out.

Smash is obviously going to crush it in sales though.

1 million in USA, .5m in Europe and Japan,and .3m rest of world for lifetime sales