Monster Hunter Wilds nearly breaks 1M players despite early performance issues
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Capcom's action-adventure game Monster Hunter Wilds is now officially available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with the title enjoying a strong launch on Steam. As of writing, Monster Hunter Wilds has reached 900,000 concurrent players, with its 24-hour peak nearing the 1 million mark. This makes it the eighth most played game on Steam, surpassing best-sellers like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, Baldur's Gate 3, and even its predecessor, 2018's Monster Hunter: World, which had a peak concurrent player count of 334,684.
These massive numbers come as a bit of a surprise, especially since the game has a ‘mixed' user review rating on Steam, with reports of performance issues. Many players on Steam are calling it an “amazing game,” but also claim it has some of the worst optimization they've encountered.
Too demanding for even RTX 4070 Ti Super owners
One of the main reasons behind the mixed reviews on Steam is the game’s demanding nature. One RTX 4070 Ti Super owner mentioned that the game keeps crashing on the first cut scene every time for them, adding that if you’re able to run the game, “it must be due to witchcraft or something.” Even before launch, we saw performance issues with the RTX 3060, which couldn't hit 1080p 60 FPS natively without relying on DLSS.
And if the game is struggling on GPUs like these, handheld owners using the Steam Deck can probably guess what their experience will be like. When we tried running Monster Hunter Wilds on the Steam Deck, the game struggled, suffering from heavily degraded visuals and severe frame stutters even at FSR Ultra Performance with the lowest possible settings. We also tested the game on an RTX 5080, which, unsurprisingly, enjoyed smooth performance.
On top of that, those on mid-range or lower-end hardware hoping to play the game through GeForce Now are out of luck. Nvidia has stated, “Unfortunately, we don't have news to share on Monster Hunter Wilds right now.” That said, if you’re experiencing crashes or stuttering issues, we recommend checking our guide to see if one of the fixes does the trick.
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