Monster Hunter Wilds is completely dominating gaming in 2025 - this is why

2025 has already seen some incredible games release, such as Split Fiction, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Avowed, with loads more on the horizon but Monster Hunter Wilds has been dominating since it released for a key reason.

Monster Hunter Wilds is the latest entry in the hugely successful action role-playing game series and it sold more than eight million copies in its first three days after releasing on February 28, making it the fastest selling game of all time for studio and publisher Capcom.

It has since emerged the game has had the biggest physical launch of any PS5 game released in Japan so far with more than 600,000 physical copies (601,179) in its first week alone, which is excluding digital and PC sales, according to sales figures from Japanese magazine Famitsu.

Monster Hunter Wilds hit a concurrent player peak of more than 1.38m over the first weekend of its release on Steam, which is the fifth highest figure achieved by any game on that specific platform.

It also helped Steam to hit more than 40m concurrent players across all of its games for the very first time too.

And the game can add yet another accolade to that already impressive list.

In a standout year for gaming, Monster Hunter Wilds is proving to be the biggest hit so far / Screenshot from Capcom

Monster Hunter Wilds was not just the best selling game in February (something that's impressive in its own right considering it launched on the last day of the month) but it's also the best-selling game of 2025 in the US so far, according to Circanavia IGN.

Steam sales have accounted for more than half of game sales despite some huge performance issues on the platform that have been, or are still being, ironed out by Capcom.

If it can keep that crown by the end of the year with Grand Theft Auto 6 still currently scheduled to release in Autumn remains to be seen.

Monster Hunter Wilds' popularity has been put down to three key things, according to the managing executive officer of Capcom, and it seems to be having all sorts of effects, including on PS5 rentals in Japan and the sale of cheese naans.

For more from indy100, check out our best 100 video games of all time and our review of Assassin's Creed Shadows.

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