MeinMMO editor Leya spent the weekend in the beta of Monster Hunter Wilds and is sure: The action RPG could become Game of the Year next year. The strong numbers and huge community engagement support this.
I was sure that Monster Hunter Wilds would be a big and popular game. But the free beta for Xbox, PS5, and PC truly showcased it. It ended yesterday, on November 4th.
The numbers alone speak for themselves: The open beta had over 360,000 hunters on Steam just 20 minutes after launch, diligently hunting monsters. According to Steam DB, the peak was even 463,798 players, which is really remarkable for a mere beta.
And these are only the numbers from Steam. We don’t have the complete picture since we can’t see PS5 and Xbox numbers. Traditionally, Monster Hunter is at home on consoles. We can assume that those numbers reached a similar level here or were even higher.
The beta was also popular on Twitch. According to TwitchTracker, Monster Hunter Wilds secured 15th place with 3.63 million hours watched in the last 7 days. Just below, in 16th place, is Dragon Age: The Veilguard with 3.56 million hours watched. The beta ran for 4 days and released on the same day as Dragon Age.
Positively surprised, despite high expectations
I spent 10 hours with the beta last weekend and never planned to play that long. I just wanted to take a quick look to get a brief impression. But the gameplay loop hooked me.
I got into the franchise nearly 15 years ago with Monster Hunter Tri, back on the Nintendo Wii. I witnessed how the game progressively developed and achieved its breakthrough in the West in 2018 with Monster Hunter: World. The Monster Hunter series has never disappointed in quality. World even achieved a metascore of 90 on Metacritic according to critics.
I went into the beta with high expectations and was ultimately surprised that I enjoyed the gameplay even more than I had anticipated.
What I liked:
- the monsters look great and are also fun to fight
- the map felt very open
- the dynamic weather system adds variety
- time on the new mounts can be utilized effectively
- co-op multiplayer is more in the foreground
- it is possible to take two weapons on a hunt
- the character editor is a dream
What should be improved:
- monsters run away too often
- the auto-focus is still clunky
- the weapons don’t feel heavy enough for the ultimate power fantasy
What positively surprised me: Wilds focuses much more on the core aspects that define Monster Hunter.
Go out into the world, fight monsters repeatedly, grab their loot, improve your weapons and equipment with that loot. Then fight even larger and stronger monsters. Perfect for those who love looting & leveling, which applies to most gamers.
At the beginning, I was still skeptical about how the new secret mounts would affect gameplay.
They automatically go towards the monsters, completely taking away the search for them. However, this enables larger and more open maps that feel much more like an open world. The multiplayer clearly takes center stage this time, and you were already thrown into a large lobby in the beta and strongly encouraged to seek help.
And that is the franchise’s greatest strength: defeating large monsters together in co-op. The beta gives me the impression that Capcom has further refined the focus on the strengths of the game.
The community is already hyped
It cannot be underestimated how important strong community engagement has become for marketing games. Monster Hunter has always had a very dedicated community, which has grown substantially in the West with World.
During the beta weekend, my feeds on Twitter/X, reddit, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube were filled with Monster Hunter. Discussions were underway about the strongest weapons, the monsters, or how smitten everyone was with the quest giver Alma. Yes, speedrun lists are already here, focusing on the strongest monster of the beta.
Memes are already emerging from the community as well. Curiously, the poly monsters that could come from a PS2 game, due to poor performance on the PC, are currently very popular in the community:
Why a vibrant community is so important: An engaged community maintains the buzz, generates curiosity, and gets others excited about the hype. High engagement on social media allows developers to connect directly with players and build lasting relationships. These relationships then lead to stronger bonds with the game and the studio.
Of course, it is assumed that in the end a good game comes out of it. Positive community engagement can quickly turn into toxic attacks if disappointment sets in.
The marketing director of Larian and therefore also of Baldur’s Gate 3, Michael Douse, even went so far in a panel discussion with PCGamer to say that traditional marketing is dead and that the direct connection to a lively community is the key in today’s marketing. Baldur’s Gate 3 was chosen as the Game of the Year 2023 and is also known for its vibrant community. Their success proves this right.
Monster Hunter: World was already nominated for Game of the Year
Let’s go back to the year 2018 when Monster Hunter: World was released. The direct predecessor of Monster Hunter Wilds could have already been Game of the Year.
The action RPG competed with:
- God of War
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
- Celeste
- Marvel’s Spider-Man
- Red Dead Redemption 2
God of War took home the title Game of the Year 2018
at that time. Monster Hunter: World was able to win the award for Best RPG.
GTA 6 and PC performance could be obstacles
You see, I have high hopes for Monster Hunter Wilds. The beta weekend has made me even more optimistic.
However, there is a competitor that could overshadow everything when it arrives.
This is the situation with GTA 6: The release of GTA 6 is currently planned for 2025. This will be one of the most relevant releases of the next few years, and expectations are high. For this very reason, however, a delay into 2026 could occur. And before the rumor mill starts churning – I know no more than you do.
GTA 6 is too important for Rockstar to not release the game polished and in its best condition. Moreover, Rockstar has a history of release delays, since their quality standards are very high. Therefore, a delay is not unlikely, though it is merely speculation.
This is the situation with performance: The beta had a horrible performance for older PCs at times, which contributed to the polygonal graphics I previously mentioned. On our sister website GameStar, Duy Linh Dinh wrote about how system-intensive Monster Hunter Wilds is and the downsides of DLSS and FSR.
Capcom has already provided a comment. The beta was said to be an older version, and they are working on making the game run smoothly on PC.
Whether Game of the Year or not: This will be good
Whether Monster Hunter: Wilds will actually be Game of the Year remains to be seen. However, I firmly assume a nomination.
What’s more important to me is that the beta convinced me that Monster Hunter Wilds will probably be even better than its direct predecessor, World.
Capcom also gets a lot of trust from me regarding Monster Hunter, as the studio has always delivered. How it will turn out in reality remains to be seen. For now, I’ll put the crystal ball away and look forward to the release in February 2025.
