Capcom's Monster Hunter Rise sells more than 4 million units over the weekend

[Cal Jeffrey]

In brief: Even though Capcom's latest iteration in its Monster Hunter franchise is only available on the Nintendo Switch, sales are nearly on pace with Monster Hunter World. Since launching last Friday, Monster Hunter Rise has sold more than 4 million digital and physical copies. Only a million shy of MHW's launch numbers.

Monster Hunter Rise has only been out for three days and has already sold 4 million copies worldwide. Capcom noted that it did not beat Monster Hunter World's 5 million global sales in the same time frame. However, MHW launched simultaneously on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Rise is a Switch exclusive until it lands on Windows sometime next year.

Like its predecessor, Monster Hunter Rise is an action RPG tasking players with tracking down giant beasts in a fantasy realm. However, Capcom added a couple of new "getting-around" features. Players now have a dog-like palamute companion that serves as a faster means of traveling around the map. Palamute can also act as a mount in battles. Players can now use "wire bugs" which work somewhat like a grappling hook to scale cliffs, bridge gaps, or to ride and control monsters.

Capcom ditched its older MT Framework game engine, used in Monster Hunter World, for the new RE Engine. So players may see some performance enhancements as well.

"The game was developed with Capcom's proprietary RE ENGINE in order to provide a new, accessible Monster Hunter experience that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere and with anyone," said the company in its press release.

The Monster Hunter series has proven to be one of Capcom's best sellers, moving more than 66 million units in the franchise. The series has been popular in Japan since its first release for PlayStation 2 in 2004. However, it wasn't until Monster Hunter World launched worldwide in 2018 that the brand got global recognition, moving nearly 17 million copies and making it Capcom's best-selling game to date. Indeed, we have listed it as one of the Best PC Games (You Should Be Playing) and gave it an honorable mention in The Best PC Games of 2018.

Let's see if Monster Hunter Rise can follow on that momentum.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89094-capcom-monster-hunter-rise-sells-more-than-4.html

 

[brucek]

What do we make of these numbers? I'd have expected that excluding playstation and xbox would have a far greater effect than just 20% / 1 million units? Does this mean that most of the PS/XB players also have a Switch?

Separately, how does the economics work where Nintendo can afford to adequately compensate Capcom for the loss of those one million sales? That's a lot of lost revenue and players, and Nintendo already has many platform exclusives, I don't see how this adds up to a bigger win for them?

 

[stewi0001]

I'm intentionally trying to avoid this game. I can't risk getting hooked to it! Since it will probably be grind driven for better gear and what not, I would get left in the dust compared to the lifeless souls that have nothing else to do. XD

 

[Lounds]

I bet half that amount was from Japan alone!