Monster Hunter Wilds is out and crushing it across all platforms, especially Steam. But the game is suffering from tons of performance and technical issues that are keeping it from becoming one of the greatest titles of 2025.
According to SteamDB, Monster Hunter: Wilds pulled in over 1.3 million players during peak hours, surpassing the likes of Valve’s own Dota 2 and the 2022 GOTY Elden Ring. With the numbers expected to rise over the weekend, it’s indisputable that Wilds is a massive success for Capcom and yet another stellar entry in the long-running Monster Hunter series.
But as is the case with many modern blockbuster releases, performance issues plague the game’s PC release—so much so that merely 47 percent of players left a positive review for it on Steam, putting it in the “Mixed” category. Players cite numerous problems, from crashing to general instability, and hope that Capcom fixes the release as soon as possible.
“I understand that new games are becoming more demanding and people are expected to upgrade, but this is absurd,” one disgruntled Steam player wrote, adding that World suffered from the same performance issues as Capcom’s latest title.
“This game is everything wrong with PC optimization in 2025,” another player wrote, while another still said the title ran like “absolute sludge.” These complaints do not come only from players using older hardware. Those sporting the latest and greatest graphics cards and CPUs are also seeing as many issues as the ones stuck with older gear, reporting low polygon models, frequent freezes and crashes, and abysmally low average FPS.
Capcom has since responded to the outrage, outlining numerous steps players can take to troubleshoot and fix some of the most jarring issues. The company suggests players ensure their drivers and operating systems are up to date, as well as to check that they have the latest version of DirectX installed. Adding the game as an exception to players’ anti-virus software is also recommended, Capcom says, inviting everyone to report issues on its dedicated troubleshooting Steam thread.
Modern AAA titles tend to see performance issues on launch far more frequently than they used to. Though some may say that mainstream games ran as bad as modern ones during their heyday, one must remember the power of our 2025 hardware. No excuses can be made that rigs as powerful as the ones we have cannot run modern titles, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for any improvements.
Published: Feb 28, 2025 01:08 pm