So, why is Monster Hunter World, a game released in 2018, suddenly getting player numbers 400% more than its usual baseline on Steam? If you’ve been on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, anywhere really, you have probably seen people either returning to Monster Hunter World or trying it for the first time. But…why? As I write this, it has 158,000 concurrent players and climbing, its highest since January 2021 when its Iceborne expansion was released on PC. What exactly is going on here?
Well, a few things.
Monster Hunter Wilds – The next major Monster Hunter game was announced at The Game Awards on December 7, probably one of the single biggest reveals of the show. And when does Monster Hunter World’s playercount start climbing? On December 8, and it never stops from there. This also was joined by an ad campaign from Capcom encouraging players to go back and play Monster Hunter World again with the #ReturntoWorld hashtag. While I’m not entirely convinced an ad campaign is responsible for this, it’s extremely clear the Wilds announcement was the kickoff, at the very least.
The Steam Winter Sale – This is the compounding factor, that while numbers were climbing already, Monster Hunter World ended up being part of the Steam Winter Sales where for two weeks, it was offered for just $10. Down from its original $60, and further down from its recent price of $30. It is a colossal game for that much money and so loads of copies were snatched up at that price, no doubt. That sale started on December 21, and the game had 98,000 concurrent peaks then. Now, two weeks later after the sale has just ended, it’s at 158,000, and again, the number is still climbing as I write this.
Content Creators – This is a bit of a chicken and the egg situation, where content creators may be jumping on the bandwagon because the game is getting popular, or the game is getting popular because big content creators are suddenly pushing it. I’m leaning toward the former, but once they are playing, it certainly helps accelerate things further. One prominent example of this is Asmongold, who can create player interest surges by himself, as he tried Monster Hunter World and ended up uploading eight videos about it within a week ranging from 400,000 to 1.2 million views each, and he’s been playing it on his widely watched stream consistently. And he isn’t the only one of course, but perhaps the most prominent example, and no doubt drove sales by himself.
A Satisfying Loot Grinder – And I mean, Monster Hunter World is a great game, and in my space, the “loot grinding” genre, it’s about as good as you get, farming monsters in difficult fights for materials to craft high end armor and weapons. It feels like many people are now playing when they didn’t exactly understand just how well MHW might intersect with their existing gaming interests, and now they know.
I don’t know exactly where the game will peak from here. The Steam sale is over, but it’s a very, very long game you can sink hundreds of hours into, so we’ll see who sticks with it, and for how long. What’s clear from this is that Monster Hunter Wilds is going to be a massive, huge-scale hit when it does arrive.
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