Monster Hunter Wilds' Comeback: From Steam Backlash to Switch 2

In March 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds was the fastest-selling game Capcom had ever made. By the summer, its Steam reviews were among the angriest on the platform. Very few blockbusters have travelled from triumph to trouble that quickly, and fewer still have climbed back.

Now Wilds is almost all the way back. On Steam, its overall English user rating today reads "Mostly Positive", with 71% of 86,564 reviews positive, and recent reviews are a little warmer still at 75%. A Nintendo Switch 2 version arrives on December 4, 2026, and a major expansion, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, is planned for 2027.

A record-breaking start

Wilds launched on February 28, 2025 for PS5, PC and Xbox Series X|S, and it was a phenomenon:

• 8 million copies sold in three days, Capcom's fastest-selling game at that point
• 10 million by the end of March 2025
• more than 1.38 million concurrent players on Steam on its second day
• 601,179 physical copies in its first week in Japan, the biggest physical launch for any PS5 game there

Critics loved it too. It scored 88 to 90 on Metacritic depending on platform and 89 on OpenCritic, with praise for its seamless open world and story, though some fans felt it was too easy.

The design was the most ambitious in the series. Hunters ride a bird-like mount called the Seikret, which lets them carry two weapons into the field. Pop-up camps, a wound system and a new Focus Mode changed how fights flow, and Wilds was the first Monster Hunter with cross-play across every platform.

Then the PC problems hit

The trouble was performance. Many PC players reported stutters, poor frame rates and heavy hardware demands, and the mood grew worse as updates failed to fix the worst issues. User reviews, mixed at launch, collapsed into "Overwhelmingly Negative" territory for recent reviews by July 2025.

At the same time, sales slowed sharply. In the April to June 2025 quarter, Wilds sold 477,000 units, a big drop from its launch pace. Capcom acknowledged that the Windows version needed more optimisation. The company also said some team members had been harassed over the complaints, and they withdrew from a developer conference in Japan.

The slow fix

Capcom's answer was a long series of free Title Updates, starting in April 2025, that added new monsters, quests and a multiplayer Grand Hub. Crossovers helped bring players back: a Street Fighter 6 collaboration in May 2025, and in September a Final Fantasy XIV event that added Omega as a monster and a Chocobo mount.

The turning point for PC players came in January 2026, when a major patch added detailed CPU and GPU settings and other engine improvements. Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto also promised that paid downloadable content would be cosmetic only, which reassured players worried about the game being split up.

Switch 2 and Ascendance

Two big steps are next. The Switch 2 version on December 4 is a test of how far Capcom's RE Engine can scale: Resident Evil Requiem already runs on Switch 2 with heavy use of DLSS upscaling, and Wilds is an even bigger open world.

Then, in 2027, comes Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, a major expansion directed by Takuro Hiraoka. If history is a guide, this is when Wilds will peak: Capcom's previous big expansions, such as Iceborne for Monster Hunter: World, were often the moment those games reached their final form.

Why it matters

Monster Hunter Wilds is a case study in how modern AAA launches work. Huge day-one sales do not guarantee a happy community, and performance on PC now matters as much as reviews. But it also shows that a determined publisher can turn a reputation around with steady updates, honest communication and time.

WGC's take: if you skipped Wilds because of the 2025 headlines, now is a good moment to look again, especially if your PC sits around the recommended specs. Switch 2 owners should wait for performance reviews on December 4 before buying. For the rest of the year's big releases, see our 2025 AAA year in review and our upcoming games calendar.