Capcom admits Monster Hunter Wilds fell short of the company's expectations

In a statement during its Q1 FY2025 earnings conference, Capcom admitted that Monster Hunter Wilds, its latest flagship entry in the franchise, has underperformed relative to the company’s projections, with sales in the quarter falling short of the company’s expectations, despite a robust launch.

Monster Hunter Wilds released on February 28, 2025, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC, and sold a record-breaking 10 million units within the first month of launch. 

Unfortunately, the company managed to move only 477,000 additional units from April to June 2025, bringing Monster Hunter Wilds' lifetime sales to 10.585 million units as of June 30, 2025. 

During the investor Q&A, one question directly addressed Monster Hunter Wilds sales:

“It seems that soft sales of Monster Hunter Wilds in the Digital Contents business were offset by sales of catalog titles from series such as Devil May Cry, and Resident Evil. Is this correct?” 

Capcom’s answer, while nuanced, did indicate that their expectations were not met:

“Sales of Monster Hunter Wilds during the first quarter fell short of our initial expectations. On the other hand, sales of the Devil May Cry series increased due to promotions tied to the release of a new animated series, while sales for the Resident Evil Series increased due to promotions carried out in conjunction with the release date announcement for the latest title in the series, Resident Evil Requiem.”

This places the game at 9th in Capcom’s Q1 unit sales, falling behind staples like Devil May Cry 5, which sold 1.782 million units, and Resident Evil Village, which moved 923,000 units within the same period. This sluggish momentum caused a 9.5 percent drop in Capcom’s stock price following the earnings call.

This disclosure came amid Capcom’s otherwise robust financial results, with net sales reaching 45.5 billion yen or $303 million, a 53.7 percent increase year-over-year, and operating income increasing to 90.8 percent to 24.6 billion yen or $164 million.

Monster Hunter Wilds' sales drop has been attributed to a series of well-documented technical issues on PC, where optimization issues and the use of the older RE engine for the game’s open world have led to CPU usage spikes, stuttering, and performance issues across a wide range of system configurations.