Highlights

  • Monster Hunter World offers over 500 hours of potential content for completionists, making it a worthwhile investment for players who want a long-lasting experience.
  • The online community for Monster Hunter World is thriving right now, with the game experiencing a resurgence of interest ahead of the release of Monster Hunter Wilds in 2025.
  • Monster Hunter World is an excellent introduction to the series for newcomers, thanks to its accessibility and approachable learning curve, making it a great starting point for anyone new to the franchise.

Monster Hunter World helped to bring the long-running Monster Hunter franchise into the mainstream, achieving the greatest level of success the series had seen in localized regions. Since its release, players have also been treated to the excellent Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion, as well as the follow-up Monster Hunter Rise and its phenomenal Sunbreak expansion. With the recent announcement of Monster Hunter Wilds arriving in 2025 and acting as the official "sequel" of sorts to Monster Hunter World, some players might be wondering whether it's worth going back and playing Capcom's 2018 masterpiece.

The Monster Hunter series is one that players can choose to invest hundreds of hours in should they choose to do so, and Monster Hunter World is no different. While the main story of Monster Hunter World and the Iceborne expansion is more than worth the price of admission and clock in at a cumulative 85 hours on average, there are over 500 hours of potential content available for completionists. With an excellent roster of available monsters, hundreds of hours of content, and a great introduction to the series that will help players acclimate to both Rise and Wilds, Monster Hunter World is worth checking out in 2024 for a multitude of reasons.

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Reasons to Still Play Monster Hunter World in 2024

Monster Hunter World's Online Community Is Thriving After 'Wilds' Announcement

In addition to Monster Hunter World being a phenomenal single-player experience, its tense monster hunts are made all the more enjoyable with up to three friends in co-op. Whether using matchmaking to fill out a complete squad or gearing up and hunting with three friends, Monster Hunter World offers a relatively seamless co-op experience that only adds to the fun of the game by increasing monster aggression and health, making the experience of taking down powerful prey that much more engaging with 4 players. The icing on the cake is that, in the wake of Monster Hunter Wilds' announcement, the community for Monster Hunter World is more active than it's been in years.

Recent Steam player counts for Monster Hunter World show that the game is experiencing a bit of a renaissance ahead of Monster Hunter Wilds' release, and that's with Monster Hunter Rise also being available as an option. Rise is an excellent game and quasi-follow-up to World, but it sits somewhere between the traditional Monster Hunter experience and the more approachable aspects of Monster Hunter World that helped it make the franchise so popular and accessible.

The all-time peak player count of Monster Hunter World stands at nearly 330k players, and the resurgence of interest in the game has it maintaining a solid average player count of roughly half that, around 160k players. Monster Hunter World is excellent in either single-player or co-op, and now is a great time to jump in ahead of Wilds.

Monster Hunter World is the Perfect Series Introduction for Newcomers

While not much is known about Monster Hunter Wilds outside what players have been able to surmise from analyzing the trailer, it's safe to say that it will carry on the framework laid down by Monster Hunter World. World's success in the West comes, at least partially, from how much more accessible it is in comparison to previous entries, including its incorporation of several quality-of-life features that make the game easier to learn.

For anyone who has yet to jump into the Monster Hunter series, both World and Rise are excellent starting points, but Monster Hunter World just might eke out a victory thanks to its approachable learning curve. And, for anyone who is a lapsed player looking for some more Monster Hunter ahead of Wilds, there are worse ways to spend time than starting up a new build and using any one of the game's 14 weapon types.