The Monster Hunter Wilds Beta attracted almost half a millon concurrent Steam users in the first hour

Capcom opened up the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta on Steam last night, allowing PC players to get a sneak peek at the next installment of giant lizard killing. SteamDB reports that the Wilds beta had 460,000 concurrent players within an hour of its PC release.

SteamDB reports that the peak user count for Monster Hunter: World was approximately 334,000, shortly after its PC launch in 2018. Monster Hunter: Rise, on the other hand, had a maximum of 231,000 players at the launch of Sunbreak. Comparing player counts from a free beta with those of paid-for game releases is only useful to a certain extent, but Wilds has clearly attracted a lot of attention. A half-million players aren't just there by accident.

The beta includes two demo hunts that are similar to the Monster Hunter Wilds in-person demos at Gamescom or TGS. The first quest, which you begin after spending hours in the character creator perfecting the look of your hunter, is a tutorial that asks you to kill a Tetsucabra, after introducing you to the basics of controlling the Seikret mounts.

You'll be hunting an Alpha Doshaguma in the second quest. This is a sloth-like creature with a large body that you will need to separate from its group before you can take it down. After completing the quest, you are free to roam around the Windward Plains area, where you can test out Wilds' modifications to Monster Hunter's fourteen weapon types. You can also initiate "field investigations" by attacking other monsters in the region, such as the lightning-launching Rey Dau.

As of the time this article was written, the number of concurrent players had dropped to about 215,000. It's not surprising that we're in the middle the workday. However, many beta players have reported performance and graphics problems. According to Capcom's tweet, the full version of the game is already "in a more improved condition compared to the Beta test." However, we won't know the extent of these improvements until the full Monster Hunter Wilds launches.

The Monster Hunter Wilds Beta Test will run until Sunday, November 3, 6:59 pm (PT). The full version of the game will be released on February 28, 2025.