The Monster Hunter series had a very dedicated following in Japan for many years, but when it came to its outreach in Western territories, the series was very niche, but had a dedicated following. Despite the smaller western community, Capcom has been very determined to push the series further in the west, and has been very generous with releasing as many titles in the series as they could, with only a few exceptions such as Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and Monster Hunter Frontier Online.
Capcom has had a major breakthrough with the promotion of digital sales, and has since then been able to achieve new goals and landmarks, such as Monster Hunter World being the first in the series to have a simultaneous release worldwide. And thanks to very smart changes in core gameplay and design, Monster Hunter World managed to become the first title in the series that has garnered mainstream appeal.
Capcom’s Investor Relations firm released the news in a press release on October 19, along with a mention on their Twitter page stating: “Capcom aims to further grow user base with proactive expansion of the series overall.” Between the release of Monster Hunter World and its expansion, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, the title as a whole has shipped over 20 million units.
The worldwide success of Monster Hunter World has since then poured over towards their latest entry in the series, Monster Hunter Rise, which is currently a Nintendo Switch exclusive. As of September 24, 2021, it has sold over 7.5 million units worldwide. A PC version of Monster Hunter Rise is also set to be released early next year, with a demo version that is currently available on Steam. Together, both the Nintendo Switch and PC version of Monster Hunter Rise will launch with a brand new expansion “Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak” in summer of 2022 with another simultaneous worldwide release.
The success of Monster Hunter has become a crowning achievement for Capcom that the series can only expand further from here, and with the Monster Hunter movie that was released in 2020, and the animated film “Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild” released in 2021 on Netflix, the series has plenty of potential to grow into a trans-media franchise.
Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is available for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Monster Hunter Rise is also available on Nintendo Switch, with a PC release scheduled for January 18th, 2022. For more info, check out our reviews on Monster Hunter World, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and Monster Hunter Rise.
