Monster Hunter Now celebrates second anniversary and $271m in lifetime player spending

• Monster Hunter Now celebrated its second anniversary on September 14th, 2025.
• The geolocation game has generated over $270 million between Google Play and the App Store, according to estimates.

Three months on from its acquisition by Scopely, geolocation game Monster Hunter Now is celebrating its second anniversary with new events, monsters and more.

Based on Capcom’s second-biggest IP Monster Hunter, Now was developed as a location-based AR game by Niantic and released globally on September 14th, 2023.

Within one month it had become Niantic’s second most-lucrative game behind Pokémon Go, and it went on to generate over $200 million in its first year, according to AppMagic estimates.

In its second year, Monster Hunter Now earned a further $63.4m, just 31% of year one earnings. This brings its lifetime revenue to $270.9m.

Though this indicates a significant slowdown over the game’s second year, these estimates only account for player spending on Google Play and the App Store - not any revenue from Monster Hunter Now’s web shop, which typically offers better deals to incentivise players away from in-app purchases.

In the lead-up to Now’s acquisition by Scopely, alongside Pokémon Go and Pikmin Bloom in a $3.5 billion deal, Niantic confirmed that over 50% of Monster Hunter Now’s audience plays seven days per week.

Plenty to play for

Though revenue appears to have fallen during its second year, the Monster Hunter Now team has continued to implement many new features and improvements like a customisable Palico sidekick, an AR photo mode for this companion, and the Tundra habitat for more ice-themed monsters.

The game also tested Pokémon Go’s in-person event formula with Monster Hunter Now Carnival early in year two, where players could buy tickets to attend in Shibuya, Japan on October 12th and 13th, 2024.

A global, decentralised version of the event followed last November and proved a "roaring success", as revenue surged by 151% and over 38m monsters were slain.

The second year also saw an event tie-in with Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest main series release for console and PC.

More recently, "style customisation" was introduced as a way for players to further personalise their gameplay experience, not only in the type of weapon used but in how to use it.

Unlocking styles requires farming resources from Riftborne monsters, abnormal versions of existing monsters introduced this June. Hunting these monsters forms part of the latest endgame content while repurposing existing monster assets.

Now that year two has come to an end, Now’s second anniversary is being celebrated with limited-time quests and new monsters Garangolm, Lunagaron and Espinas. The launch of Exploration Bases is also soon to follow, encouraging community-building and local play with landmarks hunters must work together to develop over three-week waves.

By co-operating, hunters will be able to submit Exploration Emblems to develop a base and face off against monster outbreaks. The more a base is developed over a wave, the more rewards those local players will receive.

Moving forward, the team assured Monster Hunter Now will "continue to evolve".