Talk about a strong start for the Monster Hunter Wilds beta. Just hours after releasing, the early test for the action-adventure game hit over 460,000 concurrent players on Steam. Keep in mind those figures don't even account for people on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, either.
On SteamDB, the Monster Hunters Wild beta reached a peak of 463,798 players roughly hours after it began last night at 8 PM PT / 11 PM ET on October 31. The open beta will run until 6:59 PM PT / 9:59 PM ET this Sunday, November 3. So it's possible the concurrent-player count hits an even higher number as the weekend kicks off. (At the time of publication, around 430,000 people on Steam were checking it out.) Overall, it's been a year of big numbers on Steam, with user numbers being broken.
Now, this is a beta for Monster Hunter Wilds, and GamesRadar spotted players running into some comical graphical bugs for the game. For example, one Reddit post shows a monster turning into what looks like an original PlayStation polygonal creature. The official Monster Hunter account on X stated it's aware of some issues with the game so far.
One recent discovery from the beta relates to an accessibility feature. It appears Monster Hunter Wilds will offer arachnophobia assistance, which turns any spider-like creatures in the game into blob-like slime foes.
Monster Hunter Wilds will launch February 28, 2025, and in Japan, there will be a ridiculously expensive collector's edition that comes with a bike. Preordering Monster Hunter Wilds can save you up to $20 on PC, and GameSpot sister site Fanatical has the action-adventure game for $57 (instead of $70) ahead of release.