Over 150,000 players have returned to play Monster Hunter: World on Steam in the last 24 hours — here’s why
Capcom’s best-selling game ever, Monster Hunter: World, is seeing a massive resurgence of players eager to hunt once again.
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What you need to know
Over the past three months, there has been a resurgence of players returning to play Capcom’s best-selling action-hunting game,Monster Hunter: World.
According to Steam’s databases onSteamcharts, the PC version of Monster Hunter: World has just seen a recent record-breaking peak of 154,121 players playing the game in the last 24 hours. This number of concurrent players for the game hasn’t been seen since April 2020. To be clear, the highest amount of concurrent Steam players was 329,333 in July 2018, at the game’s launch. But to see 154,121 people concurrently playing a game within a 24-hour period that is roughly six years old is impressive.
The reason why so many people are flocking to play Monster Hunter: World now, even though the game is six years old, is due to several factors. For one, Capcom announcedMonster Hunter Wildson Dec 8, 2023 and this reveal has generated some anticipatory hype that’s brought players back to World. Thisupcoming Xboxandupcoming PC titleis considered to be the true next-gen successor to Monster Hunter: World as opposed toMonster Hunter Risewhich many fans felt was more akin to an arcadey spin-off built primarily for theNintendo Switch.
So it is likely that returning players and newcomers alike are diving into Monster Hunter: World to get themselves hyped up and to prepare their hunting skills for when Monster Hunter Wilds releases in 2025 forXbox Series X,Xbox Series S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
Hunters, keep your skills sharp ahead of the arrival of Monster Hunter Wilds in 2025 as we invite you to join us as we #ReturntoWorld! It’s time to relive the hunts & journey we’ve taken since 2018 as we look forward to the next generation! Full info: https://t.co/vniPj56ko9 pic.twitter.com/EGTFlZ410sDecember 11, 2023
What’s more, Capcom itself enticed players back to World with a promotional campaign called “#ReturntoWorld” that launched on Dec. 11, 2023, after Wilds was revealed. During this event, Capcom’s community management team further rallied the fanbase to return to Monster Hunter: World and play with them on their live streams while enticing new players to join.
The second major reason why Monster Hunter: World is seeing major relevance again is that 2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of theMonster Hunterfranchise. To celebrate the occasion, Capcom is going all out with all kinds of promotional events like the aforementioned “#ReturntoWorld” campaign, partnering withMSI to create Monster Hunter-themed products, and announcing that the company will show off more news for Monster Hunter Wilds in the Summer of 2024.
In addition, Capcom held a massive 67% discount for Monster Hunter: World during Steam’s 2023 Winter Sale, selling it at a reduced price of $29.99 to $9.89, enticing even more people to buy the PC version.
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The third major reason why Monster Hunter: World is seeing a resurgence in popularity is that popular streamers like Asmongold have started playing the game.
For those unaware, Asmongold is a streamer and content creator with over 2.32 million subscribers on YouTube and 3.5 million followers on Twitch. He is most famous for streaming and producing content onWorld of Warcraftsince 2009. Part of Asmongold’s success is due to how funny and direct he is. He became a major contributing factor toFinal Fantasy 14’smassive surge of new players in 2021 when he started playing it — especially since he was one of the many players whomigrated from playing WoW to FF14during World of Warcraft’s controversial Shadowlands expansion.
Now a similar phenomenon is happening again since Asmongold started his playthrough of Monster Hunter: World on Dec. 30, 2023 (with just the first video of his playthrough reaching 1.2 million views alone on YouTube), inspiring other streamers and players to follow suit.
Join the hunt and see why this game is one of Capcom’s finest
Personally speaking here, I am so happy to see the gaming community at large play Monster Hunter: World again. I consider this game not just one of thebest Xbox gamesandbest PC gamesout there, it’s also one of my favorite games of all time, despite someniggling issues that I hope Monster Hunter Wilds improves upon.
Its immersive world-building is engrossing, it has mountains of cool-looking weapons and armor you can collect, the combat system is difficult to learn but satisfying to master, the sheer wealth of gameplay content will last you for years, and it features some of the most fun boss fights I’ve ever had the pleasure of conquering.
All this title’s exciting gameplay is made even better with an online co-op multiplayer feature where you can play in 4-man parties and hunt the towering monsters of the New World together.
If any of you readers haven’t tried Monster Hunter: World and are fans of action games you can play with your friends, then I wholeheartedly recommend you give it a try and see why this game has sold 23 million units worldwide. I especially recommend the PC version as there is a gigantic modding community creating hundreds of gameplay-alteringmods for Monster Hunter: World and its expansion, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
Monster Hunter: World
Join the Research Commission and journey to the New World to hunt legendary monsters and Elder Dragons in Monster Hunter: World. Take on massive beasts alone or with your best hunting buddies in 4-player online co-op.
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Alexander Cope is a gaming veteran of 30-plus years, primarily covering PC and Xbox games here on Windows Central. Gaming since the 8-bit era, Alexander’s expertise revolves around gaming guides and news, with a particular focus on Japanese titles from the likes of Elden Ring to Final Fantasy. Alexander is always on deck to help our readers conquer the industry’s most difficult games — when he can pry himself away from Monster Hunter that is!
