There are few games I love more than the Resident Evil series, but Capcom’s own Monster Hunter: World is one of them. The next-gen reinvention of the beloved Monster Hunter games was the push I needed to get into the massive RPGs, and also saw the series finally explode in global popularity far beyond its already huge success in Japan. In a special New Year message, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto thanks fans for the success of World and its follow-up Monster Hunter Rise, also speaking to development of the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds.
While I’ve since spent a lot of time with Rise and previous entries such as Generations Ultimate, Monster Hunter: World (and its vast Iceborne expansion) remains a pinnacle of the series, bringing its iconic creatures and the environments they live in to life in stunning detail. Not only is it one of the best RPGs ever, it’s also comfortably Capcom’s best-selling game, and Tsujimoto confirms that both it and Rise have set new sales milestones for the Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Street Fighter developer.
The announcement at The Game Awards 2023 of Monster Hunter Wilds, the next game in the series, was followed by a call from Capcom for players to return to MHW, and they’ve answered that in their droves, pushing Monster Hunter World up the Steam charts once more. It appears that response has also sold more copies thanks to the Steam Winter Sale – I myself am joining the hunt once again on PC – and Monster Hunter Rise, originally released on Switch before also coming to Steam, has now itself claimed an impressive milestone.
Capcom says Monster Hunter: World has now sold 23.1 million copies worldwide, which includes sales of the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition that bundles the base game and DLC together. Monster Hunter Rise has now sold 13.6 million units, placing it into the number two spot on Capcom’s ‘platinum titles’ list, pushing it ahead of the Resident Evil 2 remake at 13.1 million. Impressively, the Iceborne expansion itself has recorded 10.7 million units sold, meaning roughly half the players who bought the original game picked it up, putting it at fifth on the all-time sales list.
The only other game that contends with Rise is Resident Evil 5. Capcom separates out distinct versions of its games on the platinum titles list, but combined sales estimates place RE5 at 15.2 million copies across all versions. Even so, that’s an impressive success for the Monster Hunter series, and I couldn’t be happier to see so many people playing two of my favorite games of all time.
Tsujimoto also thanks fans for “a lot of positive feedback from all over the world” in response to the announcement of Wilds, and says, “The Monster Hunter Wilds team is deep in development and working diligently towards release in 2025. The next announcement for the game is planned for summer 2024, so we hope you look forward to it.”
If you’re just getting started, our Monster Hunter: World beginner’s guide should help – and once you make it to the endgame, we’ve broken down how the Monster Hunter: World Safi’Jiiva siege works to get the very best weapons in the game. Alternatively, get your hunting fix with the best games like Monster Hunter on PC.
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