Players are going wild for Monster Hunter Wilds ' open beta on Steam. The Monster Hunter Wilds beta launched across all platforms yesterday, 31st October, and lasts until 4th November (it had a stint of PlayStation Plus early access, as well). In the time since its debut on Steam, the beta has reached a peak player count of 463,798.
At the time of writing, there are 297,527 players in Monster Hunter Wilds' beta. This number makes it currently the fifth most played game on Valve's platform. More players are currently participating in perennial favourites PUBG, Dota 2 , Counter-Strike 2 .
That Banana game is also still up there, for some reason. For further comparison, at the time of writing, the recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has 115,267 players on Steam. Dragon Age: The Veilguard , meanwhile, has 37,177 current players.
Our Ed has been hands on with the game already, and came away impressed. "For the most part, Monster Hunter Wilds strikes a balance between approachability and depth of combat. It offers a familiar thrill of the hunt, of player customisation (the new armours look awesome), and of extravagant combat, but with a fresh world ripe for a bit of co-op action - even with NPCs," he wrote in Eurogamer's Monster Hunter Wilds preview .
"Coupled with some of those smart tweaks to streamline the experience and put as much focus as possible on the action, rather than fiddly menus, and there's a good chance this one'll successfully lure in a new audience of hunt.