Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter: World is an action role-playing game that Capcom both developed and published as the fifth main entry in the Monster Hunter series. It launched worldwide on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 26, 2018, and a Windows version arrived on August 9, 2018. Yuya Tokuda directed the project, which runs on a modified version of Capcom’s in-house MT Framework engine.

The story takes place on the New World, an untamed continent separate from the settled Old World. Players create a hunter who sails with the Fifth Fleet to join the Research Commission, a group based in the hub of Astera that studies the region’s wildlife. The expedition is especially interested in Elder Dragons, which migrate to the New World once a decade in an event called the Elder Crossing. Early on, the fleet encounters Zorah Magdaros, a volcanic Elder Dragon the size of a mountain, and the investigation that follows draws the hunter into conflict with Nergigante, an Elder Dragon that preys on others of its kind.

Played from a third-person view, the game sends the hunter on quests to slay or trap large monsters across six regions whose zones connect without loading screens. Glowing Scoutflies point out tracks and resources, and studying those traces gradually reveals a monster’s location and weaknesses. Hunters choose from fourteen weapon types, use a Slinger to fire projectiles or grapple to higher ground, and can turn the surroundings into weapons by dropping boulders or luring one monster into another’s territory. Parts taken from defeated monsters are crafted into stronger weapons and armor, so each successful hunt prepares the player for tougher targets.

Players can hunt alone or team up with as many as three others online, and a cat companion called a Palico assists when a party has only one or two hunters. Online sessions hold up to sixteen people, who can post quests, answer SOS flares, and form Squads. Capcom supported the game after launch with free monsters, time-limited event quests, and crossovers with other series. Paid extras outside the Iceborne expansion are limited to cosmetic items, and Iceborne itself launched on consoles in September 2019 and on Windows in January 2020.

Development started about three years before the game was revealed at E3 2017, with the team aiming to use modern hardware to create seamless, living ecosystems and to make the series easier for newcomers to approach. The Windows release came later so that Capcom could tune that version in-house. Critics praised how the game opened up to new players while keeping the series’ core challenge, and it won Best RPG at The Game Awards 2018. It has become the best-selling game in Capcom’s history, with more than 30 million copies shipped by mid-2026.