Monster Hunter Wilds' Popularity Is Thanks to Story Emphasis, Immersion, and Cross-Play, Series Producer Says

Monster Hunter Wilds has emerged as one of the most popular games of the year thus far, setting records for both the series and Capcom. The reason for its popularity, according to series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, comes down to story, immersion, and cross-play.

Tsujimoto spoke to The Nikkei (via Automaton) about Monster Hunter Wilds. According to the producer, the biggest factors that influenced the new Monster Hunter's popularity are an emphasis on story, heightened immersion (citing Wilds being fully voiced), and cross-play.

It might sound a bit strange, but Monster Hunter Wilds does have a surprising interest in the story and "why" behind all of the monster hunting. Alongside the obvious points like cutscenes and a sizeable cast of characters, the low-rank section of the campaign moves along at quite a pace.

In IGN's review of Monster Hunter Wilds, we noted as much. While the trek to the first credits roll is a little short than you might normally expect, the intent felt like a desire to have more players get through the campaign and see higher-end content.

It might be working, if player numbers are anything to go by. Capcom confirmed that Monster Hunter Wilds surpassed 8 million units sold in three days to become the fastest-selling Capcom game of all time. At launch, Monster Hunter Wilds was charting over 1 million concurrent players on Steam, and helped Valve's storefront to crack the 40 million concurrent players mark.

Monster Hunter Wilds is due for its first big post-launch update in early April. Title Update 1 will add a monster of "formidable strength at a level above Temprered," as well as an endgame area to gather. Though there have already been patches for Monster Hunter Wilds, they've mostly been addressing bugs and immediate issues.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.