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Monster Hunter Wilds is about to become Capcom's biggest franchise ever (Sorry Street Fighter, Mega Man, and Resident Evil)

Monster Hunter World sold 21 million copies over its lifetime - can Wilds beat that record?

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Wed Mar 05 2025

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The Monster Hunter series continues to rampage across records. The same week that Monster Hunter Wilds managed to break one million concurrent players, it continued the trend of selling millions of copies around the world. After the runaway success of Monster Hunter World in 2018, it might feel like the series has peaked, but now Monster Hunter Wilds is Capcom’s fastest-selling game ever.

The news comes directly from Capcom, who confirmed that Monster Hunter Wilds has sold more than 8 million copies in its first three days since release. This is despite a rocky launch that has been marred by bugs on PC, dragging down the game’s rating on Steam. With 8 million copies sold, Monster Hunter Wilds looks likely to beat the lifetime sales of its predecessor, Monster Hunter World, which went on to sell 21 million copies.

A Monster Hunter game being a hit for Capcom isn’t exactly surprising at this point. The series is Capcom’s best-selling franchise ever and has become a cornerstone of the company’s image, which includes other iconic video game series like Mega Man, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter. The combination of exploration, massive boss fights, and the ability to create your own cat companion has proven a winning formula.

Even with some changes to the Monster Hunter series, such as a greater emphasis on plot and the lack of the unique Monster Hunter language setting, Monster Hunter Wilds has clearly captured people’s attention. With a new patch incoming to hopefully fix some performance issues, it seems a matter of when rather than if Monster Hunter Wilds knocks World off its place as Capcom’s best-selling game of all time.

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