Monster Hunter Wilds

Monster Hunter World player count soars after Wilds announcement

Capcom

Written by

Lloyd Coombes

Published

22nd Dec 2023 10:04

The Game Awards 2023 ended with our first look at Monster Hunter Wilds, as well as a release window of 2025, meaning the next mainline game in the franchise will miss its 20th anniversary next year.

Thankfully, it appears not many of you care one jot, and have started playing Monster Hunter World instead.

Players flock to Monster Hunter World

Click to enlarge

Monster Hunter World is a fantastic game, but it originally launched back in January 2018 on console. So, why are players heading there instead of Rise, released in 2021?

A lot of it is down to Capcom itself, with the game's publisher nudging people back to The New World with a "Return to Monster Hunter World" campaign across social media and streaming platforms (thanks, VG247).

The campaign, which kicked off shortly before The Game Awards, has players making new characters to start fresh and playing the main story again. It's also nudged new players into the game, buoyed by watching Monster Hunter content creators and streamers revisiting the title.

In fact, according to SteamDB, Monster Hunter World's peak concurrent players within 24 hours is over 99,000. At the time of writing, there are still almost 55,000 online, and that's not accounting for PlayStation or Xbox players. The game is also Steam Deck verified, along with its Iceborne expansion, likely contributing to even more players - something that wasn't a thing when the PC port arrived in August 2018.

It doesn't hurt that the game is discounted by two-thirds in the Steam Winter sale, and given Monster Hunter games are better with friends, you may want to look into squadding up with some buddies - there's never been a better time.

Aside from Capcom's campaign, I wrote just this week how World is the more ambitious game and is arguably a better place to start than Rise.

I said, "While both games are streamlined enough for new players to comfortably invest in, World's scale trumps Rise, with labyrinthine biomes that feel genuinely believable as ecosystems."

"It's also the better-looking game, while still running great on Steam Deck."

Will you be jumping into Monster Hunter World, Rise, or Wilds when it launches?

About the author

Lloyd Coombes

Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.

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