PC download charts: ‘Monster Hunter World: Iceborne,‘ ‘The Witcher 3,‘ ‘Slay Bells’

08-01- 2020 09:01 AM

Incoming: ‘Monster Hunter: World – Iceborne’ releases on PC from January, four months after consoles. — Pix courtesy of Capcom

“Monster Hunter: World” is receiving its first major expansion on PC this week.

The Iceborne realm has been available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One since September 2019, deemed just as engrossing and fulfilling as the main game, extending the original’s storyline through new missions and monsters found on a snowy subcontinent.

Enthusiasm for the addition, which requires “Monster Hunter: World” to play, placed it in fourth on Steam’s revenue-based chart for the week ending January 5, 2020.

On the Humble Store, where a site-wide monster-themed sale has been in effect, the two titles were responsible for occupying the entire top three on January 6, thanks to a Digital Deluxe edition that includes a handful of extra virtual items.

However, Steam’s top seller by revenue was “The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition,“ still bolstered by the success of Netflix’s associated show “The Witcher,“ both of which are derived from a collection of fantasy novels and short stories.

In fact, 2015’s “The Witcher 3” again experienced its highest ever simultaneous player count this past weekend, with 103,329 Steam users playing at the same time on January 5; it had attained numbers of just over 92,000 at launch, a point at which games typically experience their peak player count.

Those figures rose after a Winter sale began on December 19 and, more pertinently, “The Witcher” debuted on Netflix on December 20.

By December 29, a heavily discounted “The Witcher 3” was Steam’s second top bestseller for the week, by revenue, eventually overtaking November’s “Red Dead Redemption 2,“ nearly four times more expensive, for the crown.

The game also remains top on GOG, part of the same business group as “The Witcher 3” developer CD Projekt RED, whose next release is April’s extremely well-anticipated “Cyberpunk 2077.”

On Itch.io, Christmas-themed survival horror “Slay Bells” topped the chart again, international awareness boosted through YouTube by recent playthrough videos from Markiplier, Kubz Scouts, Thinknoodles, BanderitaX [Arabic], Kuplinov [Russian], Gatchman [Japanese] and others.

Steam* (steampowered.com)

1. The Witcher 3: Game of the Year

2. Red Dead Redemption 2

3. Grand Theft Auto V

4. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

5. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

*Steam chart based on revenue rather than units.

Humble Store (humblebundle.com)

1. Monster Hunter: World

2. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

3. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne - Digital Deluxe

4. Star Wars Battlefront