Why Are Players Returning to Monster Hunter World?

2024 has only just begun, and there have been several noteworthy developments. The critical response for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is strong, and a free demo is available now. Big-name titles like Tekken 8 and Like a Dragon: Infinite are nearly upon us, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is drumming up discussion – again – for looking underwhelming.

So, it’s perhaps strange to see Monster Hunter World setting new concurrent player records on Steam and driving engagement. This isn’t to say the action RPG doesn’t have a healthy player base, especially since it launched in 2018, but since December 9th, 2023, the player numbers on PC have risen steadily. It peaked at 163,267 players on January 7th, 2024 – its last major peak was at launch with 169,921 concurrent players.

Keep in mind the level of hype at the time, not just from console players experiencing it on PC, but also from brand new players diving into the series for the first time. It’s rare to see a title, especially one almost six years old with a relatively recent sequel, achieving the same highs as at launch. So the question is: What’s going on?

Fortunately, the answer is far less insidious here. Ever since Monster Hunter Rise’s release on the Nintendo Switch in 2021, there have been speculations of a brand new Monster Hunter for PlayStation and Xbox, maybe leveraging the current-gen consoles. World remained fairly popular after the release of Rise and Sunbreak, but dare anyone hope that Monster Hunter World 2 was in the works?

Cut to 2023, and after the last major update for Sunbreak, speculation began again after the developer teased some new key Hunter art for its 20th-anniversary celebration. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long for an announcement as Monster Hunter Wilds was finally revealed at The Game Awards on December 10th.

Exclusive to Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC, the trailer teased new interactions with mounts, from gliding and leaping on rocks to thunderstorms and herds of wild animals. Before we could ask about the new armor or environment, the camera panned out to reveal a massive landscape, teasing the return of World’s approach to giant regions brimming with targets to hunt. However, it has a release window of 2025. Yes, Grand Theft Auto 6 also generated tons of hype with its reveal trailer despite targeting the same year, but a new Monster Hunter wouldn’t generate the same mania. Right?

Even if it didn’t, the developer was one step ahead in engaging potential new players. It announced the Return to World campaign a day after the announcement of Wilds, with a whopping 67 percent discount on Steam. A series of weekly community livestreams, essentially a fresh playthrough of the action RPG, also began on December 14th, with several blogs chronicling the journey through different regions.

One may look at the initiative and wonder, “Surely, that’s not enough to usher in such growth?” As it turns out, the Return to World campaign was in the right place at the right time. A massive discount to help onboard new players into World and Iceborne, the start of the holidays allowing players extensive amounts of time to dive into its intricate systems – it all worked out perfectly. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the developer tapped into one of its most valuable assets – the existing Monster Hunter community.

You see, in Monster Hunter, you face some daunting challenges, especially when everything is brand new. You have to juggle between sharpening your weapon, keeping your stamina topped up, gathering tracks to pursue a monster, and keeping track of your scoutflies while avoiding any hazardous wildlife.

Getting lost in the festoonery of the Ancient Forest or the bright lights and floating fauna of the Coral Highlands is as mesmerizing as frustrating. Don’t even get me started on the actual fights – Great Jagras, Kulu-Ya-Ku, and Pukei-Pukei may be forgiving enough, but once you enter the Wildspire Waste and encounter your first Barroth, all bets are off.

Suddenly, it’s a battle against roar-stuns, status conditions, impeded movement and more as you struggle to get a few hits in. At some point through this exercise, you realize that your equipment and weapon need upgrades, which means hunting many of the same monsters and grinding away until morale improves.

However, eventually, things start to click. Monster patterns become more apparent and predictable. You begin to notice the environment and how it can be used to trigger traps to deal massive damage. You begin to master that awesome Longsword or Insect Glaive and pull off some sick combos, turning your targets into prey. Then, after a climactic send-off to Zorah Magdaros and celebrating with the NPC friends gained along the way, you’re informed that Low Rank is over. High Rank has begun. Cue the beginning of the cycle once more, and again in Master Rank with Iceborne.

Long-time players have been there and struggled through quests, mechanics and systems, trying to hunt Raging Brachydios for its weapons, grinding through Safi’jiiva for its arsenal and the perfect upgrades, and dying again and again to Fatalis. At some point or another, you run into hunters who helped you through. So when a new player comes in and tries to understand it all, there’s a sense of camaraderie, of paying it forward.

Of course, taking your Master Rank gear into Lower or High Rank hunts to utterly abuse the monsters who made life miserable is also appealing. Plus it’s an opportunity to pick up a new weapon type and learn it all the way through, resulting in a brand-new experience for you as well. You also get some neat rewards.

The surge of new players is also discovering what many have known for years (and are rediscovering now): Monster Hunter World is a blast. Rise has its merits, especially when it comes to streamlining many elements. Don’t get me wrong – fighting RNG to get a single Attack Jewel, nevermind an Attack Jewel 4, is still a nightmare. Joining a quest, only to see randoms drop like flies and end it prematurely, is also annoying, and so help me if Flinch Free isn’t mandatory in some scenarios.

But the sheer range of content, from Siege quests where you work with other players through multi-stage quests to weaken and slay Safi’jiiva or Kulve Taroth, is just so enjoyable. The combat also holds up incredibly well, even if I’m still not the biggest fan of the Clutch Claw. Nailing that Helmsplitter, seeing those big damage numbers from a True Charged Slash or executing a Perfect Rush still feels great. The replay value of Monster Hunter truly shines with how diverse and fun each weapon type is.

Monster Hunter World has surpassed 23 million copies since its launch, which includes the base game and Iceborne Master Edition. It garnered universal praise from critics, introduced a new generation of console players to the series’ magic, and offered hundreds, if not thousands of hours, of fun for players. Monster Hunter Wilds may seem a ways off, but as Eileen the Crow once said, a hunter must hunt, and World offers no shortage of fun in that regard.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.