Niantic and Capcom's Monster Hunter Now has reached the significant milestone of 15 million downloads. To mark this achievement, Niantic is offering players free Hunt-a-thon Tickets through a clever promotion on its web store, accessible only via an external link. Additionally, celebratory paid item packs are available to coincide with this milestone.

However, the pace of growth for Monster Hunter Now has slowed down notably. While it garnered five million installs within its first week and reached 10 million in just 35 days, it took six months to add another five million. This slowdown is evident, with installs now occurring at a much slower rate.

Initially, Monster Hunter Now garnered considerable attention as a geolocation-based game similar to Pokémon Go, quickly becoming Niantic's second-largest hit. It generated over $30 million in its first month alone. However, towards the end of 2023, both revenue and downloads began to taper off.

To address this decline, new monetization strategies have been introduced, and the frequency of new monster spawns was increased in March of this year. Despite these efforts, downloads have remained sluggish. According to App Magic estimates, only around 235,000 downloads occurred in the past month, a mere fraction of the rate seen last September.

Nevertheless, Monster Hunter Now has found success as one of the top location-based games in Japan, its primary market. It also boasts higher revenue per player and better retention rates compared to Pokémon Go, whether measured at Day 1 or Day 30.

In an effort to boost downloads, Monster Hunter Now recently introduced a Monster Tracker feature, allowing players to pursue their preferred monsters. Additionally, players can now earn in-game currency by exchanging discarded materials, incentivizing hunts even for monsters they may not be interested in. Group Hunt Rewards have also been introduced to encourage multiplayer engagement.

Looking ahead, Monster Hunter Now plans to launch events centered around popular monsters like Deviljho and introduce the highly anticipated Zinogre for a limited time. Given Zinogre's popularity within the franchise, this event is expected to drive a surge in player numbers and potentially contribute to the game's revenue, which has already surpassed $150 million.

Source: adapted from an article by Aaron Astle, News Editor for PocketGamer.biz.