Monster Hunter Rise is well on its way to supplanting World as the most popular Monster Hunter game ever, and possibly Capcom’s biggest launch ever. A big part of that success comes from two things. The first is that this is the first post-World portable release that has many of the modernizations that fans expect, and it still has all the old charm.
And it would seem that Capcom is pretty happy. Capcom announced that their latest installment in the Monster Hunter series for Nintendo Switch has sold more than 5 million units since its March 26 launch. That puts it well on-track to usurp Monster Hunter World as the best-selling game. According to Capcom, Monster Hunter has shipped out a total of 66 million units as of the end of the year 2020. 16 million of those copies were from World on various platforms.
That launch wasn’t without issues though. There weren’t problems with the game itself mostly, though some online connectivity issues were reported. Many who pre-ordered the game in the US ran into shipping issues with GameStop and FedEx that caused major delays in getting the game. Hopefully, the next game in the franchise manages to avoid these problems.
Capcom has been pushing pretty hard to turn their start franchise into a global force. The recent launch of the first Monster Hunter movie adaptation fell pretty flat. The film only grossed around $35 million on a production budget of $60 million. It’s very likely that we won’t see another film anytime soon. Thanks, Paul WS Anderson.
The ultimately forgettable movie had all flash and very little substance. A confusing and careless narrative—highlighted by the fact that star Milla Jovovich’s character is Capt. Artemis in the film, while being listed as Lt. Artemis in the promotional material—left very little for fans of the games to enjoy. It also had so many confusing writing and editing choices which constantly pulled the viewer out of the experience. Even though it’s meant to be listless B-movie schlock, the glaring problems are too numerous to ignore for even a casual viewer.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is due out for Switch and PC on July 9, 2021. Monster Hunter Rise is currently available on Nintendo Switch as of March 26, 2021, and is coming to PC in early 2022.
