Mountains can have multiple peaks. Ignoring all but a few data points would have led someone to say that the stock market was doing great in October 2008 because it was way above where it was 40 years prior.

This policy of disregarding all data points except the absolute highest and the most recent does not apply in any real-life situation. If you have a fever of 103 and it goes down to 101, that is progress. Your temperature is declining. Your temperature is not considered to be rising simply because it's usually 98.6, but is now 101. If you are in a car accident while going 30 mph and you are accused of having been accelerating because several minutes before the collision your car was at a complete stop at a light, you're going to call bullshit because actually you were in a 45 mph zone and you slammed on the brakes. You were decelerating at the moment of impact.

Pretty big of a strecth for this debate. The conversation of downhill meaning sales have decreased over the past two entries. Because the series experienced a giant surge in popularity, what happened in 2007 is irrelevant. It'd be like arguing that dubstep is still doing well because it's doing better than it did in 2007 (i.e. before it's surge in popularity a few years ago).

Suppose you're a nurse in the ER and a hurt kid is admitted. He has a couple of broken ribs or something, I dunno. The day he is admitted is 3G. He is significantly less healthy than he was the previous day (Portable 3rd) before the accident took place. The next day (4), he has made almost a full recovery. He's not quite fully healed yet, but he's ready to be released. You go tell his parents that his situation is worsening and his health is in decline.

You're fired.

Nopes - I'm right.

Your right i admit! Thats kinda sad that its a decline and yet outselling everything The other HH has to offer combined >:]

(i kid, i kid!)

I just realized that the new 3DSLL by itself outsold PS3, PS4, Vita, Vita Tv and PSP combined. Why does Japan hate Sony and their third party partners nowadays?

I can't see any console besides the N3DS.

Are we seriously comparing a game franchise to an sick child?

(note I have not stake whatsoever in the MH sales debate, as far as I'm concerned it's just a beast atm, this is just the most bizarre analogy I've ever come across)

Well, HH are on their way out - people prefer to buy their games on consoles or PC.

I'm just trying to illustrate that some situations are too complicated to boil down to a simple "up" or "down." It's certainly true that Monster Hunter peaked in Japan on PSP in 2010. But simply stating that its sales are going "down" since then doesn't paint an accurate picture of the situation. Doesn't make it incorrect, just misleading.