Monster Hunter Wilds is barely clinging onto Capcom's top-sellers this year, getting beat out by the likes of Monster Hunter Rise and… Devil May Cry 5, for some reason

A horrified Nata points at the camera in Monster Hunter Wilds.
(Image credit: Capcom)

Despite being the most-hyped thing at Gamescom last year, topping Steam wishlists and raking in nearly 1.4 million concurrent players shortly after launch, Monster Hunter Wilds is struggling to pull in the sales even compared to its four-year-old predecessor.

As reported by Eurogamer, Capcom published its most recent financial report earlier this week covering the first half of the fiscal year—from around the start of April 'til the end of September.

The giant robotic raid boss from Final Fantasy XIV, Omega, standing in the snow to challenge a hunter.

(Image credit: Capcom, Square Enix)

There's also the ongoing matter of the game's difficulty. Outside of optimisation, one of the biggest criticisms Wilds faced at launch was that folks thought it was simply just too darn easy. Now in the wake of the Final Fantasy 14 collaboration and the brutally difficult Omega Planetes fight, the tables have turned a little too rapidly. A softer difficulty curve certainly would have been nice, I have to agree there.

Those two things (and, you know, the classic post-launch, pre-inevitable-expansion lull) will have certainly contributed to Wilds not selling as highly as some other games on this list. For comparison, Street Fighter 6, which cgame out two years ago, managed to shift an extra one million copies in the first half of the financial year.

Perhaps the most surprising one here, though, is Devil May Cry topping the sales ranking with over two million units sold, tipping the lifetime sales over the 10 million mark. The report notes that the figures also include the Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition—a slightly souped-up rerelease of the original—but considering that came out almost five years ago, it's interesting to see its popularity here.

Lagiacrus, a large leviathan monster, in Monster Hunter Wilds.

(Image credit: Capcom)

Less surprisingly are the sales of Resident Evil games. RE: Village sold 1.5 million copies in the first half of the fiscal year, followed by Resident Evil 4 and 7. Resident Evil 2 came in just below Street Fighter 6, with the third game outselling both Monster Hunters by a smidge.

It's still worth noting that, ultimately, Monster Hunter Wilds is still sitting on over 10 million lifetime sales. That's not quite at Rise's 17 million yet, nor is it the near-30 million Capcom reported for Monster Hunter: World at the beginning of the year. But I've no doubt that a big optimisation overhaul—perhaps strategically positioned in the run-up to whatever Wilds' big expansion is going to be—will give the game a good ol' bump in the future.

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Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.  

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