Monster Hunter World Helped Dauntless Grow

Dauntless, an action-RPG of the cooperative monster-slaying genre, has been in the works since before we even knew Monster Hunter World existed. Developer Phoenix Labs was hoping to inhabit a space that the core Monster Hunter series had previously never been: the PC.

So when Capcom revealed that Monster Hunter World would be coming to PC after all, you might assume that the king of the genre would end up cannibalizing some of Dauntless’s players, and maybe curb interest in the lesser known competitor entirely. It turns out that World’s massive success has actually had the opposite effect.

Speaking candidly to IGN, Nick Clifford, director of marketing at Phoenix Labs, said their team was a little nervous when Monster Hunter World was first announced, but they still pushed forward with making Dauntless, which has been free-to-play in an open beta on PC since last May.

“In reality, Monster Hunter World coming out on console and PC was pretty good for us,” Clifford said. “Obviously when they launched our numbers took a little bit of a dip, but in the weekends that followed they were permanently higher than they were before. And that’s just because Monster Hunter World did a fantastic job of bringing new players into the action-hunting genre.”

Clifford continued on to mention how Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on the 3DS shipped four million units, but Monster Hunter World shipped more than 12 million – essentially introducing eight million new players into the genre.

“You know, being free to play, there’s literally no barrier to entry. So once you play Monster Hunter World, you can try Dauntless out for free,” Clifford concluded.

Jesse Houston, Phoenix Labs co-founder and president, has previously said that Dauntless draws “inspiration from games like Dark Souls, Monster Hunter and World of Warcraft,” where players can slay huge Behemoths solo or cooperatively. Dauntless also has a robust crafting and progression system, and has a Hunt Pass program inspired somewhat by Fortnite’s Battle Pass.

Dauntless has about 3 million players, and Phoenix Labs expects to triple that number when Dauntless launches on May 21 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC (Epic Games Store) The Nintendo Switch and mobile releases are still in the works, along with the “One Dauntless” initiative that will support cross-play and cross-progression across all platforms.

For more on Dauntless, don’t miss What to Expect With Dauntless’s Huge Console Launch for even more details.