“Monster Hunter Wilds Captivates 1.3 Million PC Players at Launch”
The recently released Monster Hunter Wilds has already made a strong debut, attracting over 1.3 million players on PC alone.
After its overnight launch, Capcom’s monster-slaying game saw its player count rapidly rise into the millions. As of this moment, the current total stands at 1,307,976 players. So far, Capcom has not shared how this figure translates to sales, which would also include its release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Wilds is now Capcom’s highest-performing PC launch to date, surpassing the record previously held by Dragon Dogma II with a peak of over 200,000 players in 2024. It significantly outperforms the peak numbers for Monster Hunter World (334,684 players) and Monster Hunter Rise (231,360 players).
Overall on Steam, it stands as the sixth most-played game on the platform of all time, ahead of Dota 2 (1.2 million players) and Cyberpunk 2077 (1 million players) and just behind Lost Ark (1.32 million players) and Counter-Strike 2 (1.8 million players).
In the developer’s third-quarter financial report from January, Capcom expressed confidence in Wilds’ performance as a buffer against declining revenue and profit during that quarter.
This achievement is particularly notable, considering its initial Steam version received an “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating on the storefront, which has since improved to “Mixed.”
The Ascension of Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter has steadily evolved into a flagship franchise for Capcom, which has endeavored to produce more consistent successes beyond Resident Evil and Street Fighter. Prior to Monster Hunter Wilds’ release, sales figures for World exceeded 25 million copies, making it the top-selling Capcom title to date.
In the same vein, sales for its Iceborne expansion and Monster Hunter Rise have also seen growth over the years since their respective launches. The franchise is set to expand further with Monster Hunter Outlanders, a mobile spinoff developed by Capcom and TiMi.
Before Wilds’ debut, Game Developer engaged with Capcom regarding the game’s approach to open-world design and the company’s ongoing development process.
About the Author
Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A native of Kansas City, MO, Justin Carter has written for several sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his work can also be found on io9 over at Gizmodo. Be cautious when asking him about how much gum he’s consumed, as the answer may be more than he’s willing to reveal.