Capcom has announced that Monster Hunter Rise for the Nintendo Switch has shipped 4 million units worldwide since it launched on 26 March 2021.

Beginning with the first title in 2004, the Monster Hunter franchise has now reached a cumulative sales total exceeding 66 million units shipped as of 31 December 2020.

Monster Hunter Rise is an all-new Monster Hunter title exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. The game was developed with Capcom’s proprietary RE ENGINE in order to provide a new, accessible Monster Hunter experience that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere and with anyone.

The game’s launch is so big in Japan (on par with franchises like Dragon Quest) that a company in Japan marked 26 March 2021 as a business-wide holiday because so many of its employees asked for the day off to play the Monster Hunter Rise video game on its launch day.

VR development company Mark-on head Masaki Hiyama created “Monster Hunter Rise Launch Day” as an official day off after realizing his employees wouldn’t be focused on their job that day and since many of them were already applying for a day off anyway.

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— JackMasaki (@JackMasaki) March 23, 2021

Hiyama explained to the Huffington Post:

“There were several employees who said they wanted to take the day off on the 26th because they wanted to play MonHun immediately, so we took the plunge and did this. We received words of thanks and appreciation from employees for giving them this day off.”

In the meantime, check our Monster Hunter Rise best weapons guide or head on over here for our guide on basic and advanced Wirebug techniques.