Capcom has shipped over 20 million copies of Monster Hunter World globally, the Japanese games company has announced.
This number includes shipments of the expansion Monster Hunter World Iceborne Master Edition, which was well received by critics and gamers alike.
World originally launched in January 2018 and has become Capcom’s best-selling game of all time - by some distance, beating out the likes of Resident Evil and Street Fighter.
Launched on PS4 and Xbox One, with a PC launch eight months later, the fifth installment in the Monster Hunter series needed only one month of sales to take the crown as Capcom’s best-selling game in its history.
The game appears to be selling at a fair clip considering Capcom had moved 17.3 million copies at the end of June. So there must be many who are still wanting to get into the intricate, lush environments of World and feel the call of the hunt.
The company’s second best-selling title is Resident Evil 7, which topped 10 million in shipments earlier this month, which means Monster Hunter World is a far bigger hit for Capcom.
A more recent installment in the series, Monster Hunter Rise, for Nintendo Switch, has sold 7.5 million copies as of September 24. Rise will be released for PC (Steam) on January 13, 2022, according to the company.
Monster Hunter has always been hugely popular in its native Japan where there’s even a theme park attraction at Universal Studios in Osaka.
Incidentally, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd is the third best-selling entry in the series having sold 4.9 million copies, and which launched on the PSP in December 2010, but which was a Japan and Korea-only release.
Following Monster Hunter 4 on the Nintendo 3DS, World was the first to launch on a non-Japanese console, arriving on Xbox One simultaneously as the PS4, and is also perhaps the first in the series to capture a truly global audience.
This is not a surprise considering it released across major consoles and made the formula far more accessible, allowing new players the chance to learn the ropes, while still appealing to the hardcore dedicated fans. Also, it had cats.
With the expected Sunbreak to offer another large expansion similar to Iceborne Master Edition, the series looks to go from strength to strength.