Black Ops 6 and GTA 5 are being beaten on Steam by a hot new beta demo

Date: 2024-11-01

Monster Hunter Wilds characters — The hunt has already struck gold (Capcom)

A free new beta of an upcoming 2025 game is proving much more popular than expected and bigger than Call Of Duty and GTA 5.

Monster Hunter had its breakthrough moment in the West with 2018’s Monster Hunter: World, which has since surpassed 25 million units to become Capcom’s highest-selling title ever.

While follow-up Monster Hunter Rise didn’t hit the same levels of success (over 15 million copies sold as of June 2024) but that was because it was a Nintendo Switch exclusive for its first year, with other console versions only arriving two years later. By comparison, Monster Hunter Wilds is a direct sequel to World and is expected to do at least as well.

Judging by the player numbers on Steam for the beta, which launched across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC yesterday, Monster Hunter Wilds might end up doing considerably better.

As revealed on SteamDB, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta has already hit an all-time concurrent peak of 463,798 players. For context, Monster Hunter World has an all-time peak of 334,684 players when it launched back in 2018, so the Wilds beta has already surpassed it.

At the time of writing, the beta is the fifth most played game on Steam with 341,634 players, behind only Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and that weird Banana game. The beta’s peak player count is the 22nd highest overall of any game on Steam, ahead of Helldivers 2 (458,709) and Among Us (447,476).

Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam — The beta is mixing with the heavyweights (SteamDB)

This puts it ahead of both Call Of Duty (124,382 players) and GTA 5 (110,450 players) and considering Black Ops 6 has just launched, and is the fastest selling Call Of Duty ever, the success of the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is even more impressive.

While these huge numbers are partially down to the beta being free and open to everyone, it’s at least an indicator of the overall interest in the sequel. If the numbers continue, implying people are enjoying the game, then things will be looking very rosy for Capcom.

Monster Hunter Wilds beta on steam — It’s a huge debut for the beta (SteamDB)

How to join the Monster Hunter Wilds beta

The beta is available to download for free across the respective stores on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. It runs from Friday, November 1 at 3am until Monday, November 4 at 2.59am GMT, so you have the whole weekend to try it out.

Along with a character creator tool, the beta features the opening tutorial missions and the Doshaguma Hunt, where your goal is to defeat the alpha of the Doshaguma pack. While your gameplay progress doesn’t carry over, your character creation data can be transferred to the final version.

When is Monster Hunter Wilds released?

Monster Hunter Wilds is set to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 28, 2025.

Some have already speculated about the likelihood of a Nintendo Switch 2 version but while that does seem a possibility, it won’t get announced until the console is officially revealed.