Despite a few issues at launch, particularly with PC, Monster Hunter Wilds has got off to a flying start for Capcom, breaking records for the company and showing that the franchise is one of its biggest. MH Wilds' sales and concurrent player numbers have been incredible, highlighting that the title has been worth the budget that Capcom has put into it, and the studio will benefit from this further when the expansion inevitably comes. Still, while these numbers look great for Capcom, they shine a light on some issues elsewhere for other companies, considering that they can't keep up.

Although the Monster Hunter series has often worked with Nintendo for its portable titles, the series isn't exclusive to any particular platform, with its main games benefiting from being on as many platforms as possible. Performance on each platform is not always guaranteed, and the Monster Hunter series is known for having issues with its PC ports, but that hasn't stopped it from breaking records for the PS5. This record-breaking show shows off how big Monster Hunter has become and PlayStation's struggles with its current generation of consoles and exclusives.

Monster Hunter Wilds Set The PS5 Launch Sales Record In Japan

It Beat All The PS5 Exclusives That Have Come Before

Japanese site Famitsu posted the latest sales numbers for MH Wilds, showing that it sold over 600,000 physical copies in its first week. This excludes digital and PC sales, which brought the total to a whopping 8 million after the first three days.

The Monster Hunter Wilds launch was so successful that it holds the record for the biggest physical launch of a PS5 title in Japan, which is impressive given that it isn't a PlayStation exclusive and the series' modern titles have found a long-term home among their PC audience.

Xbox doesn't have much presence in Japan, with the country generally turning to the PS5 or Switch as their console of choice.

Given the stats provided around the sales numbers, it is clear that Monster Hunter Wilds benefited from digital sales more, and that seems to be how gaming is going in general. Still, that hasn't stopped MH Wilds from beating the sales of its predecessors, with MH World and Rise selling around 1.3 million copies on the PS4 and Switch, respectively, in the first three days of release (according to Gematsu). The 8 million sales MH Wilds managed already eclipsed Street Fighter 5's lifetime sales according to Capcom's Platinum List, and Wilds will likely climb.

Monster Hunter Wilds Isn’t Even A PS5 Exclusive

Yet It Has Beaten Most Of The PS5 Exclusives

It needs to be prefaced that MH Wilds isn't a PS5 Exclusive and enjoys massive sales success on PC, as seen by its concurrent players on Steam, yet its physical copies sales have beaten last year's top-selling PS5 exclusive. While now on PC, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was exclusive to PlayStation for about a year and was 2024's top seller, yet it only had 350k lifetime sales on the console. Final Fantasy 16 the year before was 2023's top-selling exclusive and had managed over 420k sales, according to Eurogamer.

Final Fantasy 7 Part 3 will be the final part of the game and finish the FF7 Remake saga.

This bodes poorly for PlayStation exclusives and shows this console generation's struggle, with these games being unable to impact the gaming industry as a whole. For instance, something like God of War impacted the entire industry, winning game of the year and being endlessly referenced, which isn't something that PS5 exclusives have managed to enjoy. MH Wilds has managed to increase the sales of cheese naans just because they look so delicious in the game, and its astronomical sales will likely have a stronger cultural effect, too.

The PS5 Is Still Searching For A Generation-Defining Exclusive

A GOTY Winner Or A Title That Shakes The Industry

The closest thing the PS5 has had to generation-defining titles is probably Spider-Man 2, with its impressive sales, or God of War Ragnarök, given its legendary battle for 2022's GOTY against Elden Ring, but there are cavities to both. Ragnarök can be considered a PS4 title since it was playable on both, and Spider-Man, while an award-winner, found itself somewhat overshadowed by 2023's GOTY, Baldur's Gate 3, which it can't be blamed for. The PS5 exclusives haven't made a consistent impact, and even at their best, they still find themselves eclipsed.

This is unlikely to change for the rest of the generation's runtime, given how Monster Hunter Wilds has broken PlayStation sales records despite not being an exclusive and the arrival of GTA 6, which will cast a long shadow on anything that hasn't managed to shine brightly in the year beforehand. While something like Astro Bot was outstanding, winning 2024's GOTY, it was more of a celebration of PlayStation than its own game to shake the industry. While Square Enix has been unhappy with Final Fantasy's sales, Capcom couldn't be happier with Monster Hunter's.

Sources: Famitsu, Sal Romano/Gematsu, Capcom Platinum Titles, Ed Nightingale/Eurogamer