In the leadup to its global launch, Monster Hunter Wilds shattered pre-order records on both Steam and PlayStation, effortlessly following the path of its predecessors, 2022's Monster Hunter Rise and 2018's Monster Hunter: World. With these sales, Capcom's unique and esoteric RPG series has firmly established itself as one of the biggest video game franchises globally.
However, this wasn't always the case. Less than a decade ago, the idea of a Monster Hunter game achieving such widespread popularity worldwide would have been unthinkable. Going back to the series' inception in 2004, the original game received mixed reviews. It wasn't until its transition to the PSP with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite that the series truly took off—in Japan.
For a long time, Monster Hunter was a prime example of a game series that was more popular in Japan than elsewhere. The reasons behind this were straightforward, as this article will explore, but that didn't deter Capcom from striving to break into the international market. As evidenced by the success of Monster Hunter: World, Rise, and now Wilds, their efforts have paid off significantly.
This is the story of how Monster Hunter evolved from a domestic hit to a global phenomenon.
Around the time of Street Fighter 5's launch in 2016, Capcom underwent an internal reorganization to prepare for a new generation of games. These games would utilize the company's brand new RE Engine, replacing the aging MT Framework. This change was more than just about tools; it included a new mandate to ensure Capcom's games were developed not just for existing, territory-specific fans, but for a global audience.
"It was a combination of factors," says Hideaki Itsuno, a former game director at Capcom known for his work on Devil May Cry. "The change of the engine and the clear goal given to all teams to create games that reach the global market and are fun for everyone."
Looking at nearly all of Capcom's games released during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, it's evident that the company was trying to capture the "Western games market." While Resident Evil 4 was a significant success, other attempts like the gun-focused Umbrella Corps and the sci-fi shooter series Lost Planet chased Western gaming trends without success. Eventually, Capcom realized the need to create games that appealed to everyone, not just fans of traditional Western genres.
"We had a clear goal of focusing and not holding anything back," Itsuno explains. "Towards making good games that would reach people from all over the world."
Itsuno highlights the period leading up to 2017 as pivotal. "The changes in organization and the engine, all these elements came together around that time," he says. The launch of Resident Evil 7 that year marked the beginning of a Capcom renaissance.
No other series embodies this new company goal for global success better than Monster Hunter. While it had its dedicated fans in the West, the series was significantly more popular in Japan for decades. This wasn't by design, but rather due to specific real-world factors.
Monster Hunter found immense success when it transitioned from the PlayStation 2 to the PSP with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. The handheld gaming market has always been stronger in Japan, as seen with the success of the PSP, Nintendo's DS, and more recently, the Switch. The popularity of handhelds in Japan is rooted in several factors, but according to Ryozo Tsujimoto, the series' executive producer, the key was the reliable ability for Japanese gamers to play with friends thanks to the nation's advanced wireless internet network, which was years ahead of the United States at the time.
"Twenty years ago, Japan had a very solid network environment available to people, allowing them to connect and play online together," Tsujimoto says. "While we recognize that not everyone had the chance to play with friends back then, moving to handheld systems allowed us to expand the player base that was interacting and playing multiplayer together."
Monster Hunter, built on cooperative play, thrived when friends could easily join hunts together, a feature best served by handheld consoles. Due to Japan's advanced internet, the game was initially developed with a local market in mind, even if unintentionally.
This created a feedback loop. Monster Hunter games became best-sellers primarily in Japan, leading Capcom to release Japan-only content and host exclusive events, further cementing Monster Hunter as a "Japan-only" brand.
Despite this, Monster Hunter had fans in the West who envied the exclusive content Japanese players received. As the Western world improved its internet infrastructure and online play became standard for console gamers, Tsujimoto and his team saw an opportunity to launch their most advanced and globally accessible Monster Hunter game yet.
Released in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Monster Hunter: World marked a significant shift for the franchise. Instead of being designed for smaller handheld consoles, it offered large-scale, AAA console-quality action with enhanced graphics, larger areas, and, of course, bigger monsters.
"Our approach to globalizing the series and Monster Hunter in general ties into the themes we had in designing the game, but also into the name of the game," Tsujimoto reveals. "Naming it Monster Hunter: World was a nod to our desire to appeal to a worldwide audience and introduce Monster Hunter to new players."
It was crucial that Monster Hunter: World did not favor one market over another. The game was released simultaneously worldwide, with no exclusive content locked to Japan. "This comes with realigning ourselves to meet the global standards that people expect from titles around the world," Tsujimoto explains.
It wasn't just about simultaneous releases; Tsujimoto and his team delved deeper to see how Monster Hunter's formula could be tweaked to appeal to a broader global audience.
"We conducted focus tests and user tests worldwide, and the feedback and opinions we received greatly influenced our game systems and contributed to our success as a global title," Tsujimoto says.
One significant change resulting from these tests was the addition of visible damage numbers when players hit monsters. These small tweaks to an already successful formula propelled Monster Hunter to unprecedented heights. Previous Monster Hunter games typically sold between 1.3 and 5 million copies, not including re-releases and special editions. In contrast, Monster Hunter: World and its 2022 follow-up, Monster Hunter Rise, both surpassed 20 million copies sold.
This growth wasn't accidental. Instead of altering Monster Hunter's core to suit Western tastes, Tsujimoto and his team found ways to make the series' unique (and sometimes complex) nature more accessible to a wider audience without compromising its essence. This approach continues with the latest game, Monster Hunter Wilds.
"At its heart, Monster Hunter is an action game, and the sense of accomplishment from mastering that action is crucial," Tsujimoto explains. "But for new players, reaching that point can be challenging. We've been strategizing how to guide players to that sense of accomplishment. With World and Rise, we meticulously analyzed where players got stuck, what was hard to understand, and what they struggled with, gathering player feedback and conducting our own research. All this knowledge has influenced how we've implemented new systems in Wilds."
Within 35 minutes of its release, Monster Hunter Wilds reached 738,000 concurrent players on Steam, more than doubling Monster Hunter: World's all-time high. There's a strong likelihood that Capcom's latest hunt will quickly surpass the achievements of World and Rise. With glowing reviews and the promise of more content, it seems highly probable that Monster Hunter Wilds will continue the series' mission to conquer the world.
