Monster Hunter series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto has credited the story of Monster Hunter Wilds as being one of the primary factors behind the Capcom game’s breakout success.
Tsujimoto, who was recently promoted to become Capcom’s Chief Product Officer, stated this in an interview with Nikkei, a Japanese publication. Automaton then reported his comments, which explained that Tsujimoto believed players enjoyed how Monster Hunter Wilds emphasized its story more than previous Monster Hunter games and how its immersiveness was heightened as the game was fully voiced. He also credited cross-play with drawing many people to the game and getting them to stick around.
Monster Hunter Wilds launched on February 28 and sold 8 million copies during its first three days on the market. On March 10, Circana’s Executive Director Mat Piscatella confirmed on Bluesky that Monster Hunter Wilds had the highest launch-week dollar sales for any game since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and that it ranked 1 in weekly dollar sales across all three platforms it was available on.
GameSpot liked Monster Hunter Wilds, but wasn’t as fond of its story as Tsujimoto is. “The story does provide some context to each hunt and monster but doesn’t otherwise add anything meaningful,” GameSpot’s Monster Hunter Wilds review states. “Though Monster Hunter has never suffered for its barebones stories, Wilds’ narrative focus draws arguably too much attention to a weak tale when a less-is-more approach would suffice.”
Monster Hunter Wilds is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Its first major title update will be released early next month.