The Monster Hunter series has had the online community in mind from its very inception back in 2004. To overcome overwhelming obstacles, hunters have always teamed up to bring down their prey via online play. In the age of live streaming, this online community is now more far-reaching than ever, with novice hunters seeking advice from seasoned veterans to jump into the fray. The release of Monster Hunter Wilds marks the next phase of this saga, bringing in new monsters to take down in PvE gameplay.
In this article, we look at the debut performance of Monster Hunter Wilds on live streaming, including its record-breaking watch times and its performance among Capcom’s library of titles.
Monster Hunter Wilds Overwhelmingly Successful Debut is a Live Streaming Event
Monster Hunter Wilds had pent-up hype leading into its release, with fans excitedly anticipating the game ever since its original announcement at the end of 2023 and subsequent sneak peeks at events like Tokyo Game Show 2024. Thanks to this hype, Monster Hunter Wilds was able to hit a phenomenal 46.5M hours watched within its first week, with a peak viewership of 769K. This live-streaming viewership matches up with the incredible 1.4M peak concurrent players on Steam – the 5th highest peak concurrent player count of all-time (with some of the higher titles including behemoths from last year Palworld and Black Myth: Wukong).
Apart from mere hype, Monster Hunter Wilds appealed to old fans of the series by changing the formula from the last entry, Monster Hunter Rise. While Rise featured fast-paced gameplay, Wilds returns to the more familiar slower-paced gameplay of earlier titles with brutal punishments for failing to dodge monster attacks. Additionally, Monster Hunter Wilds has put a heavier emphasis on story this time around with long cutscenes between main missions that really flesh out the world of Monster Hunter – Capcom may be hoping to open up transmedia possibilities with this more grounded take on the series.
Big names turned out for the debut of Monster Hunter Wilds, with Japanese streamer royalty fps_shaka covering the game and pulling in a whopping 1.8M hours watched – nearly double that of second place VTuber Kuzuha with 945K hours watched. Unsurprisingly, given the game’s publisher, the top streamers supporting the game were primarily Japanese, including a large contingent of VTubers. However, there was also support from Korean streamers on Chzzk, including 한동숙 (Han Dong-suk) with 324K hours watched. Not featured here is IShowSpeed, who put on a fully-costumed marathon of Monster Hunter Wilds complete with set dressing, the climactic video for which has since pulled in over 1.6M views on YouTube.
Monster Hunter Wilds Breaks Records and Enters All-time Leaderboards
To put in perspective just how incredible Monster Hunter Wilds’ success was, it bears comparing it to other game launches on live streaming. Looking at game launches in the first 24 hours since the beginning of 2023, Monster Hunter Wilds comes in 4th with a peak viewership of 707K. Of the titles beating it, two are ARPGs (Path of Exile 2 (1.4M) and Diablo IV (992K)) with survival horror Sons of the Forest in 3rd at 909K. This means the game was able to beat out many other AAA game launches over the same time span, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (617K) and Hogwarts Legacy (574K). This success goes beyond mere “big budget hype”, and proves the overwhelming support for the Monster Hunter franchise among the live streaming community.
Among Capcom’s library of titles, the game’s performance is even more impressive. Monster Hunter Wilds brought in the highest hours watched in its first 7 days of any Capcom game with 43.2M hours watched across Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Kick, and Facebook Live. Historically, the Monster Hunter franchise has played second-fiddle to the Resident Evil series, with titles like Resident Evil Village (39.5M) and Resident Evil 4 (28.4M) dominating the leaderboard while Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter: World hit 12.8M and 12.3M hours watched in their first weeks, respectively. The performance of this new title shows Capcom’s increasing ability to generate live-streaming hype with each new release. Other Capcom franchises like Dragon’s Dogma and Street Fighter still pull in strong numbers of course, with Street Fighter 6 being particularly good at sustaining long-tail viewership thanks to live streaming-integrated events like Twitch Plays Akuma.
A Transition in the Monster Hunter Series from World to Wilds
The successful launch of Monster Hunter Wilds was crucial for Capcom, considering the title marks the official passing of the torch from one game in the series to another. Previously, Monster Hunter: World had been the go-to game for Monster Hunter fans looking to play a comprehensive version of the game with consistent updates and a large active player base. In the past, we’ve explored how the hype for Wilds even caused massive surges in demand for World on live streaming, hitting a peak of 13M hours watched in January of 2024 soon after Wilds was announced.
As World’s gameplay ages, Wilds will be expected to take up the mantle – and that means securing long-tail viewership. Monster Hunter: World had incredible long-tail viewership: For the first 3 years after release, the game consistently pulled in a quarterly viewership of at least 5M hours watched (usually far more), and even in its lowest quarters during 2022 and 2023, the game never sunk below 1M quarterly hours watched. For Monster Hunter Wilds to achieve the same, it needs to be supported with constant new content and live-streaming events like the #ReturntoWorld campaign, and to address the minor performance issues that some users reported on launch due to Capcom’s custom game engine.
Capcom’s willingness to engage in live-streaming activations like IShowSpeed’s marathon playthrough are positive signs for their support of the game moving forward. Additionally, the possibility of transmedia adaptations enabled by the game’s strong story offer the exciting prospect of a new, bold take on the Monster Hunter world. Stream Hatchet will be watching to see what live-streaming events Capcom puts on in the future to keep the community engaged
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