In recent days, all interested parties have been allowed to play Monster Hunter Wilds, and on the first Saturday, there was a historic success for the popular franchise from Capcom on Steam.
What kind of success is this? On Saturday, March 1, 2025, there were 1,384,608 Steam users online in Monster Hunter Wilds at the same time. This is not only a record for the entire Monster Hunter franchise but also one of the best launches on Valve’s distribution platform ever.
Specifically, Monster Hunter Wilds is now in 5th place on the All-Time Peak charts (via steamdb.info). Only Counter-Strike 2 (about 1.8 million), Palworld (about 2.1 million), Black Myth: Wukong (about 2.4 million) and PUBG (over 3.2 million) managed to attract more players simultaneously to their respective servers. Behind MHW are games like Lost Ark, Dota 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring.
The decision by the Capcom executives to release the new Monster Hunter immediately on all major platforms has paid off. Monster Hunter World was released first on Xbox One and PS4 in January 2018. The PC launch followed only in August 2018 – with 334,684 concurrent active players at its all-time peak (via steamdb.info).
Here are some tips for getting started in Monster Hunter Wilds:
Many Players, Much Criticism
What do user ratings look like? While those for Monster Hunter World on Steam are “Very Positive” (with 89 percent positive reviews), Monster Hunter Wilds currently only holds a mixed “Balanced,” with 54 percent positive ratings.
Especially the technology and the multiplayer are under criticism.
- Upitroma writes in his review on Steam: “Aside from the blatant performance and network issues, I don’t understand how you managed to make the multiplayer so bad after the release of Rise. When multiplayer works, it has the same problems as World, e.g. you have to start quests alone, find the target, watch a cutscene, finish the quest, and then join a friend to play together.”
- Jay Strands summarizes in his review on Steam: “I love this game, but … in the technical state it is in, I simply cannot recommend it. Capcom needs to stop releasing their games in such a pathetic state. I will edit my review once the problem is fixed, but for now, it’s a disaster.”
- UtilityWrench, on the other hand, stumbles over the copy protection – via Steam: “Thank you, Denuvo, for locking me out of my own game when I tried to fix its poor launch optimization and play it on the only computer I own.”
Diverse players who are spared from the technical problems and can cope with the quirks of multiplayer, meanwhile, celebrate the gaming experience and the improvements compared to Monster Hunter World.
Operator Egg-Kun writes on Steam for example: “The game builds on everything that was good about Monster Hunter Worlds. There were some technical bugs, but aside from that, this is a fantastic game.”
What do I need to know about Monster Hunter Wilds? In the new installment of the popular series from Capcom, you will encounter a dynamic world with a lively fauna, where you will deal with small and large creatures. You will have 14 weapons at your disposal to take down the various monsters.
You will be supported by your cat-like Palico as well as a Saikrii mount, which makes its premiere in the Monster Hunter series. Through hunting, you earn resources with which you can craft better and better armor or weapons. With those, you are then prepared for tougher challenges. An overview with all the information can be found here: Release, Platforms & Crossplay – Everything about the new Monster Hunter Wilds
