Capcom’s flagship title Monster Hunter Wilds launched with record-breaking success, selling over 10 million copies in the first month of its launch. Yet, despite this, their initial triumph faded away. The subsequent financial reports revealed a huge collapse in sales. It was a downturn that got directly linked to the critical strategic miscalculation—over-reliance on PlayStation 5, as the game’s primary platform. Such short-sighted focus left the game struggling to maintain its momentum within the gaming industry’s challenging market.
Capcom’s miscalculation lead to Monster Hunter Wilds’ sales collapse
The numbers are telling quite a stark story. After an explosive launch of Monster Hunter Wilds, the game’s sales in the following quarter plummeted to 477,000 units. It was a figure that Capcom’s board described as soft.
The decline later just got worse, with the most recent quarter reportedly seeing just 160,000 copies of the game being sold. It represents an almost total evaporation of the game after its launch market presence.
Now, the situation is said to be so severe that the game is getting outsold by its predecessor, Monster Hunter Rise (reportedly sold 200,000 copies). Even some old titles from the back catalog of Capcom, like Devil May Cry 5, Street Fighter 6, Devil May Cry HD Collection and some Resident Evil remakes are performing better. For the brand-new and high-profile release, outperforming games that are truly years old is quite an undeniable signal that shows that its commercial strategy has faltered.
The game’s sales crash is quite particularly painful as Capcom specifically targeted the PS5 as the flagship platform for Monster Hunter Wilds. The leadership of the company has admitted that they misjudged the market, noting the PS5 barrier to be a huge obstacle. They banked on the advanced hardware of PS for delivering a premium experience.
Capcom accepts what went wrong with Monster Hunter Wilds
Haruhiro Tsujimoto, Capcom’s president, acknowledged the PS5 barrier, noting the high cost of the console and other aspects creating a financial hurdle, especially for the young crowd.
With the high price point of the console, together with the game’s cost and all those necessary online subscriptions, new players’ total investment is substantial. It was too late when Capcom discovered that the audience that are willing to make a financial commitment was smaller than they had anticipated. It left their premier title completely stranded, without a sufficient player base to sustain the game’s sales.
While the game also launched on PC and Xbox, the marketing and development focus of Capcom was squarely upon Sony’s PlayStation. It resulted in a larger portion of the fanbase, who were still on the older and affordable hardware, being effectively locked out. It thereby led to a dramatic post-launch sales freeze.
A deep look at the market mismatch
The problems faced by Capcom and its premier title extend beyond just their platform choice. As per the company’s financial data, they were succeeding in spite of the Monster Hunter Wilds performance and not due to it.
While Wilds did flounder, the other franchise continued to thrive. For instance, Devil May Cry saw a huge resurgence that is tied to a new animated series. Then came Resident Evil, which benefited from some new announcements. Street Fighter 6 also gained traction with the Switch 2 port.
All the above-discussed titles had some external catalysts that drove sales and interest of players. It was something that Monster Hunter Wilds lacked critically after the launch window. It highlights one of the key issues—within today’s market, a game can truly not rely on its initial hype alone.
On the other hand, the Monster Hunter Wilds PC version, which represents the game’s major sales segment, is plagued with performance issues. It is resulting in mostly Negative recent reviews on Steam. Such reputational damage further crippled the game’s ability to attract new players on it.
Note: Despite a 30% discount during one of the major sales, the game’s technical reputation and negative word-of-mouth stifled new players’ purchasing interest.
Ironically, even after all the negative buzz, player count in-game saw a recent rise after the new content updates. It indicated that existing players are truly engaged. However, all these players aren’t convincing other players to buy the game. It creates a paradox, wherein the active community coexists with some stagnant sales, with poor reviews and a high price point deterring potential newcomers.
An ignored industry trend led to Monster Hunter Wilds’ downfall
The company forgot to look at the industry trends, too. They didn’t see that the broad gaming market has now shifted. Players today are more cost-conscious than before. There are many studies that suggest many would buy a few 2 full-price games in a year. At this time, $70 title facing so many performance complaints and needing a $500 console is definitely a hard sell.
The experience of Capcom with Wilds is like a microcosm of 2025’s broad games industry. Gamers are now content with waiting for the deeper discounts or sticking with cheaper and proven alternatives. It is exactly why the extensive and affordable back catalog of Capcom is thriving. However, the new and most expensive titles of Capcom are now struggling to find their right footing.
This new reality in itself presents a difficult path forward for the game. PS5’s addressable market appears to have largely been exhausted in its initial sales burst. Without a new platform’s release and a major transmedia push for reigniting interest, it is just left with limited options.
Capcom and its strategy must now pivot on fixing the reputation of the game’s PC version. They must implement aggressive pricing for luring in all those cost-conscious consumers who are not seeing any reason for upgrading from their cheaper, older and stable Monster Hunter titles that are already within their libraries.
