Monster Hunter has always been one of Capcom’s biggest money-making franchises. Ever since its debut over two decades ago, the action RPG franchise has enjoyed a meteoric rise in success and popularity, and though initially much of that was limited to a Japanese audience, with the seminal Monster Hunter World, the series turned into a worldwide sensation. Indeed, the 2018 title enjoys a stellar reputation, while also being the biggest ever commercial success in the entire history of Capcom, while Monster Hunter Rise, which released in its aftermath, has also seen widespread success, both critical and commercial.
Now, the series is ready to step forward into the limelight once again. Its next mainline entry, Monster Hunter Wilds, has been in the works for years, and ever since it was first showcased over a year ago, excitement surrounding it has continued to grow. Based on the reputation of the franchise alone, it’s easy to see how the game is likely going to be one of the biggest and most successful releases of the year (unless Capcom screws up in unexpected ways)- but looking beyond that and at the game itself, there’s a bucketload of improvements and changes to be excited about.
The Monster Hunter formula is obviously an incredibly addictive one. It’s been that way ever since the series’ inception, and has only improved with time, with improvements and refinements brought about the technological leap forward that was Monster Hunter World bringing it to entirely new heights. The upcoming Wilds, however, doesn’t seem to be content with not fixing what ain’t broke. In the months leading up to its release, Capcom has spoken of a number of tweaks and changes, major and minor, that are promising to build on the series’ beloved formula in key ways.
Take, for instance, the fact that Monster Hunter Wilds is taking multiple steps to make the experience feel much more seamless. Travelling between your hub village and the game’s multiple open world maps will be entirely seamless, for starters. Meanwhile, the quest board in the central village will also no longer be the only way to pick up a new quest. Simply finding your quest target in the world will dynamically begin the mission. And once that mission is done, you’ll no longer have to return to the village either, with the campsites that you establish throughout the maps serving as places where you can replenish your supplies.
Then there are the changes being made to the monsters themselves, who, of course, are always the highlights of any Monster Hunter experience. Specifically, Capcom says it is continuing to make improvements to the monsters’ AI. That means they will behave more realistically than ever before, and that the game will feature ecosystems that will be way more complex and reactive, with the constant push-and-pull of different species of herbivores and carnivores and the environments surrounding them creating an ever-shifting and dynamic world for players to navigate.
Other major features are also promising to heighten that sense of dynamism and immersion. For instance, Monster Hunter Wilds will be putting a much greater emphasis on weather and extreme weather events, as was made perfectly clear by the game’s sandstorm-filled announcement trailer itself. That weather, of course, will not only affect your surroundings and how you move around, but also the behaviour of the monsters populating that area (something that will happen courtesy of the game’s new dynamic day/night system as well).
That’s far from the extent of similarly promising improvements being made to the Monster Hunter formula with Wilds, and based on everything shown so far, the end result may very well be yet another ingenious evolution for the beloved franchise. Of course, it’s worth acknowledging that the game’s beta did raise concerns about its technical condition, and whether it’d be able to carry the weight of its ambitions at launch. Capcom has, however, assured that key improvements are being made to the game based on that very feedback, so the hope is that the company will have made enough polishing passes by launch.
And of course, when Monster Hunter Wilds does launch not long from now, if it is as good as it is looking like it’s going to be, there should be little doubt in anyone’s mind that it’s going to be a major hit for Capcom. The series always tends to enjoy widespread acclaim and high scores, especially in recent years, and you’d expect that to be the case once again. On the commercial side of things, meanwhile, it’s very, very likely that things will be just as good, if not even more so. As mentioned previously, Monster Hunter World is the bestselling Capcom game of all time with over 27 million units sold. Monster Hunter Rise, meanwhile, sits in second place, with 16 million sales. Their expansions, Iceborne and Sunbreak, have sold 14 million and close to 9 million units respectively.
All of which is to say that Monster Hunter, ever a big seller, has become even more of a guaranteed money maker for Capcom in recent years, and it’s very likely that the company will be expecting similarly rapturous success from its upcoming next instalment. In a year that is purportedly going to see the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, and in all likelihood, a new Mario Kart game, it might be premature to say that Monster Hunter Wilds will end the calendar as 2025’s biggest seller. But even if it doesn’t grab that crown, there should be absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that it will absolutely be one of the year’s biggest sellers.
In fact, when Wilds’ open beta went live in November, we saw ample evidence of just how much hunger there is out there for a new Monster Hunter experience, with the beta seeing a peak of over 463,000 concurrent Steam players. The beta, of course, was free, but it’s easy to imagine just how massive of an audience the full game is going to attract across all platforms when it launches at the tail end of February. On top of that, if it eventually also ends up releasing for the Nintendo Switch 2 like leaks have claimed in the past, it’s going to rake in even more sales, and add yet more to its player numbers.
Capcom has done a fantastic job of nurturing and expanding the Monster Hunter franchise over the course of two decades, and with World seven years ago, the publisher firmly established the series as a juggernaut of the industry. Excellent post-launch support and the endlessly replayable nature of the game itself has kept players coming back to the 2018 classic in droves even now, years on from its release, and of course, Monster Hunter Rise has also contributed to the series’ growth. Now, however, with a new Monster Hunter game on the horizon, the excitement within the fanbase is palpable, and it’s easy to see why. After all, the major steps forward that the series has taken in series years have all proven thoroughly successful. If Wilds should keep that trend going, we’re likely going to be in for yet another jewel in Capcom’s dazzling crown.
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