The franchise is a series of
fantasy-themed
action role-playing video games that started with the game
Monster Hunter for
PlayStation 2. The series is developed and published by
Capcom. As the title suggests, the player takes the role of a hunter in a fantasy environment and completes quests by hunting out specific kinds of monsters to kill or capture. The series has branched out into
PlayStation Portable games and a
massively multiplayer online game. In Japan, the
Monster Hunter series is immensely popular, and it has gained a cult following in the west, with the
port Monster Hunter Freedom (known in Japan as
Monster Hunter Portable) and its sequels,
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 /
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd,
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite /
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G,
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd and an online game called
Monster Hunter Frontier Online selling millions of copies, and
Monster Hunter Tri becoming the highest-selling third-party
Wii game in Japan. Since the series debuted, it has sold 28 million units as of March 31, 2014. As of February 17, 2015, the series has sold 32 million units. There is also an anime based on the spin-off game
Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village and a book called
Monster Hunter EPISODE (モンスターハンター EPISODE~).