It’s a funny thing when irony comes around in the most unexpected ways. To quote a video game track, “You never see it coming,” and it makes you smile because you understand why the irony hits so hard. To stop beating around the bush, we’re talking about the Monster Hunter franchise. The franchise was anything but successful outside of Japan for a long period. It was one of the longest-running cases of “git gud” games, and those hadn’t really breached the West. But then, one title came out and broke the mold and finally got players interested. Then that game had an expansion via Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
The expansion was heavily praised upon release. It offered a brand new area of land for players to go to and find monsters in, and it added Master Ranks and other gameplay features that fans at the time had been asking for. But why are we bringing up an expansion to a game that has been out for years?
Simple, because Capcom revealed that Monster Hunter World: Iceborne had crossed a major sales milestone!
If you don’t understand how impressive that is, we’ll explain. First, that’s an expansion pack that got 10 million in sales. That doesn’t happen as much as you think. Second, based on sales records from September of last year, the main game has sold nearly 19 million units. So if the expansion has sold 10 million, that means that over 50% of players have that expansion pack. That’s a great retention rate.
Finally, this helps showcase why Monster Hunter Rise has been so overwhelmingly popular. When the title was released on Nintendo Switch, many weren’t sure how it would due to the console’s power and the gameplay mechanics that were slightly altered to fit the portable system.
But not only did it sell like hotcakes, it got its own expansion in Sunbreak that has sold millions of copies, and the title has been ported to PC and other consoles to further enhance its sales.
So what this all boils down to is that this franchise is growing in fan love and praise with each iteration that comes out. Capcom has never had this kind of momentum with the series before, and thus, you can expect to see more from it in the future. We already know of some crossovers that have happened, but perhaps a new title within the line isn’t too far off.
Source: Twitter
