Capcom states that 50% of its game sales now come from PC, and expects "this ratio to continue increasing"

“PC sales account for approximately 50% of total unit sales,” according to Monster Hunter Wilds publisher Capcom. The news was shared during an earnings report at the end of January, but the official transcript has only just been made available in English.

The timing of the earnings report means the standout statistic won’t have factored in the recent success of Resident Evil Requiem. Given that the publisher only dropped two games between it and Monster Hunter Wilds, its big-budget RPG, this time last year, it’s easy to imagine which series did the heavy lifting at the time. Still, it’s worth remembering that sales of older titles will have been taken into account, too.

What’s also worth noting is that the report isn’t talking about the split in platforms from a revenue perspective, just that half of its unit sales are of its PC titles. With frequent discounts and package deals being commonplace on Steam, there isn’t enough data to proudly proclaim that half of Capcom’s total revenue comes from PC sales right now, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting of an anecdote. The company also states that it expects “this ratio to continue increasing,” which, with games like Monster Hunter Stories 3, Pragmata, and a new Onimusha game all still set to release this year, it’s easy to see the vision.

The news of Capcom’s newfound PC reliance comes at a particularly interesting time for the platform. Despite the relative success of PC handhelds like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, the ongoing memory shortage threatens to see PC gaming adoption stagnate or even shrink as the cost to maintain or improve hardware increases, which now threatens to hurt Capcom’s bottom line – though the argument could be made that potential buyers of Capcom’s titles might just pick them up on console if they ever had to abandon PC for some reason. I know I would.

Even still, for a platform once considered a tiny portion of the larger gaming pool, news of Capcom’s success in the market only strengthens the idea that PC really is a viable platform for games that fall outside of the FPS and strategy game clique it was wholly known for this time last decade. 

Second to that, last week saw Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier suggesting that Sony might take the opposite approach, turning its back on porting its single-player titles to PC. Though it has been suggested that the console manufacturer hasn’t seen huge sales of its single-player hits on PC, it was through Steam that Helldivers 2 exploded in popularity. And given the relatively slow switch rate of players hopping from the PS4 over to the PS5, it’s easy to see why the company might decide to keep its traditionally exclusive blockbuster single-player titles back as potential system sellers for its next-gen hardware.

For Capcom, though, the situation couldn’t be more different. Though sales of its last major release, Monster Hunter Wilds, seemingly dropped off a cliff after its honeymoon launch period – potentially due to its questionable performance on even top-tier hardware – it doesn’t appear to have spoiled player appetite for its other releases.