Monster Hunter Wilds is facing a harsh reality check. Despite launching with over 10 million sales and breaking Capcom records as the fastest-selling title in company history, the game’s post-launch momentum has collapsed spectacularly. Capcom’s financial results for Q2 2025 (the quarter ending September 30) show Wilds sold just 160,000 copies during that three-month period, a staggering 66% drop from the previous quarter’s 477,000 units.
Record Launch to Alarming Decline
The numbers tell a troubling story for what should have been Capcom’s biggest success of 2025. Monster Hunter Wilds launched on February 28, 2025, across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC to phenomenal initial sales. The game moved over 10 million copies in its first few weeks, setting new company records and seemingly validating Capcom’s investment in the franchise’s evolution.
Fast forward to October 2025, and Wilds now sits at 10.7 million total sales. That means the game added only 200,000 copies across the entire six-month period from April through September. The Q2 figure of 160,000 units represents one of the lowest quarterly performances for any major Capcom release in recent memory, raising serious questions about the game’s long-term viability and player retention.
Quarterly Sales Breakdown
- Q1 2025 (April – June): 477,000 copies sold
- Q2 2025 (July – September): 160,000 copies sold
- Total first half sales: 637,000 copies
- Launch period (February – March): Approximately 10 million copies
- Current lifetime total: 10.7 million copies
Outsold by Four Year Old Game
Perhaps the most embarrassing revelation from Capcom’s financial report is that Monster Hunter Rise, which launched in March 2021, outsold Wilds during the same Q2 period. Rise moved 254,000 copies compared to Wilds’ 160,000, despite being four years older and already available on nearly every platform imaginable.
This isn’t normal for Monster Hunter games. The franchise has historically maintained strong legs, with titles continuing to sell steadily for years after launch as players discover the series or upgrade to newer platforms. Rise itself took two years and a multi-platform rollout to climb from 7.5 million (its six-month total) to 12 million copies. Wilds had stronger launch numbers but has completely stalled, now sitting at just 10.7 million with minimal growth expected unless Capcom makes significant changes.
How Other Capcom Games Performed
The comparison to Capcom’s broader catalog makes Wilds’ performance look even worse. Using data from Capcom’s Platinum Titles page, here’s how the company’s major releases stacked up during Q2 2025.
| Game | Q2 2025 Sales | Release Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil Village | 643,000 | 2021 | Benefiting from Requiem hype |
| Resident Evil 4 Remake | 554,000 | 2023 | Strong sustained sales |
| Street Fighter 6 | 547,000 | 2023 | Two years old, still selling |
| Resident Evil 7 | 512,000 | 2017 | Eight years old |
| Devil May Cry 5 | 352,000 | 2019 | Netflix show boost |
| Monster Hunter Rise | 254,000 | 2021 | Four years old |
| Monster Hunter Wilds | 160,000 | 2025 | Current gen flagship |
Every single Resident Evil remake and mainline entry from the past decade outsold Wilds in Q2. Street Fighter 6, a two-year-old fighting game, moved over three times as many copies. Even the Devil May Cry HD Collection matched Wilds at 160,000 units. This is not the performance Capcom expected from its biggest franchise investment.
Why Sales Collapsed
Capcom attributed the decline to two main factors in their financial report. First, the PlayStation 5’s high entry cost creates a barrier for many potential players, limiting the addressable market. Second, persistent technical issues on PC have driven players away and damaged the game’s reputation on Steam, where user reviews remain mixed.
However, community feedback points to deeper problems beyond platform limitations and performance issues. Reddit threads and Steam forums are filled with veteran players complaining about fundamental design choices that make Wilds less engaging than previous entries.
Player Complaints
- Maps are too large with insufficient rewards for exploration
- Hunts feel too easy even at elevated difficulty levels
- Weak endgame content fails to retain hardcore players
- Lack of challenge and meaningful progression systems
- Online lobby system described as archaic and frustrating
- Setting up games with friends unnecessarily complicated
- PC performance remains poor months after launch
PC Technical Problems Linger
The PC version has been particularly problematic, with optimization issues that persist despite multiple patches. Players report frame rate drops, stuttering, and crashes that make the experience significantly worse than console versions. For a franchise that built its modern success partly on strong PC support with Monster Hunter World, this represents a serious misstep.
Capcom has released several updates attempting to address these issues, but the damage to the game’s reputation on Steam has already been done. Mixed user reviews have deterred potential buyers, and word-of-mouth about performance problems spreads quickly through gaming communities. Unlike console purchases where players are more locked into their investments, PC gamers can easily refund problematic titles and move on to alternatives.
Content Roadmap Not Enough
Capcom has been supporting Wilds with regular content updates, event quests, and challenge hunts throughout 2025. Title Update 3 arrived in late September, adding new monsters and festival content. The roadmap extends through at least the end of 2025 with various event quests featuring monsters like Nu Udra, Congalala, Rompopolo, and tempered variants of existing creatures.
But these updates haven’t reversed the sales decline or brought lapsed players back in meaningful numbers. The content additions feel incremental rather than transformative, not addressing the core complaints about difficulty, progression, and map design that veteran players have raised. Event quests offering cosmetic rewards and materials don’t solve the fundamental issue that many players find the core gameplay loop less compelling than previous Monster Hunter titles.
Comparing to Monster Hunter World
The elephant in the room is Monster Hunter World, which remains the gold standard for the franchise’s modern era. World launched in January 2018 to critical and commercial acclaim, eventually selling over 18 million copies and introducing millions of Western players to the series for the first time.
Wilds was supposed to build on World’s foundation with seamless open world transitions, dynamic seasons, and next-gen visuals. Instead, it’s trending toward becoming one of the weakest-selling mainline Monster Hunter games in recent memory once you account for the honeymoon period. If the current trajectory continues, Wilds might not even match World’s lifetime sales despite launching seven years later with a much larger established fanbase.
What Happens Next
Capcom faces tough decisions about how to salvage Wilds and restore player confidence. The company’s stock price dropped following the Q2 financial results, indicating investor concerns about the franchise’s direction. Simply continuing with the planned content roadmap clearly isn’t working if sales have cratered this badly.
Options on the table include major gameplay overhauls addressing difficulty and progression systems, aggressive price cuts to bring in new players, and potentially delaying or canceling planned DLC to focus resources on fixes. The nuclear option would be acknowledging Wilds as a misstep and refocusing development on the next entry, but that seems unlikely given Capcom’s investment in the title.
Silver Lining for Rise
The one positive story emerging from this situation is Monster Hunter Rise’s continued success. The 2021 title has now reached 17.8 million lifetime sales, adding 300,000 copies during the first half of fiscal 2025. Rise proves there’s still strong demand for Monster Hunter games when the fundamentals are executed properly.
Some players are actively recommending newcomers skip Wilds and play Rise instead, which is remarkable considering Rise was initially criticized for feeling too easy compared to older entries. The fact that Rise now looks like the better option compared to the latest release speaks volumes about how far Wilds has fallen short of expectations.
FAQs
When did Monster Hunter Wilds launch?
Monster Hunter Wilds launched on February 28, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It had a record-breaking start with over 10 million sales.
How many copies has Monster Hunter Wilds sold?
As of September 30, 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds has sold 10.7 million copies worldwide. However, only 160,000 of those sales occurred during Q2 2025.
Why are Monster Hunter Wilds sales declining?
Capcom blames high PlayStation 5 costs and PC technical issues, but players cite problems with difficulty balance, weak endgame content, oversized maps, and frustrating online lobby systems.
Is Monster Hunter Wilds selling worse than Monster Hunter Rise?
Yes, in Q2 2025, the four-year-old Monster Hunter Rise outsold Wilds by nearly 100,000 copies (254,000 vs 160,000). Rise has 17.8 million lifetime sales compared to Wilds’ 10.7 million.
What is Capcom doing to fix Monster Hunter Wilds?
Capcom continues releasing content updates, event quests, and new monsters through its planned roadmap, with Title Update 3 arriving in late September 2025. However, these haven’t reversed the sales decline.
Are Monster Hunter Wilds servers still active?
Yes, the game is fully supported with ongoing content updates and online services. The sales decline doesn’t affect current players’ ability to enjoy the game.
Should I buy Monster Hunter Wilds or Monster Hunter Rise?
Based on current player sentiment and the fact Rise is outselling Wilds despite being four years older, many in the community recommend Rise for newcomers, especially considering its lower price point.
Conclusion
Monster Hunter Wilds’ dramatic post-launch sales collapse represents one of 2025’s biggest gaming disappointments. What started as Capcom’s fastest-selling title ever has devolved into a cautionary tale about the importance of post-launch support, technical optimization, and respecting the core elements that made the franchise successful. The fact that a four-year-old game is outselling the latest mainline entry should set off alarm bells throughout Capcom’s management. While 10.7 million lifetime sales would be excellent for most franchises, Wilds has essentially flatlined after its initial burst, suggesting the game failed to retain players or generate positive word-of-mouth that drives sustained sales. Capcom needs to take a hard look at what went wrong with Wilds’ design, difficulty balance, and technical execution if it wants to restore Monster Hunter to its former glory. Otherwise, the franchise risks becoming another example of a publisher chasing trends and graphical fidelity at the expense of the gameplay fundamentals that players actually care about.