Gone Fishing: Monster Hunter: World Players are Waiting Around for More Content

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A hunter is nothing without the hunt, and for players who finished Monster Hunter: World the hunt has stalled. That's because seven months after Monster Hunter: World first released on consoles and a month after the long-awaited PC launch, there's just not a lot left to do once you beat it and run through the biggest monsters. (Multiple times.)

Just because Monster Hunter: World is Capcom's best-selling game of all time doesn't mean that players are content with sitting on their hands. Monster Hunter: World has about 49 monsters in total, with 31 large monsters. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, which recently launched on Nintendo Switch, has more than 120 by comparison.

"For me it's less about the total number of monsters in World, and more their lackluster variety and difficulty. I'd be fine with 30 monsters in a new generation game. 30 monsters with no new skeletons, reused animations, blatant clones, and outright subspecies, though, that's a tougher sell," writes redditor DukeLukewarm when asked if monster count is the most important thing in a Monster Hunter game.

That position is echoed by plenty of players in the Monster Hunter subreddit. In one thread asking about what "fix" Monster Hunter: World needs, one of the most common responses was just adding more and more content.

"It's not so much the monster count compared to other games, but at its base you only fight the same 5 in endgame. Free DLC fights have slightly increased that variety, but there's still over 25 monsters rarely fought in endgame [content]," says user Judge_Hellboy to USgamer. "Find a way to utilize them better and we'd be golden."

For others though it really is just about monster count. Dungorthb says, "Monster count is everything. MHGU has superior content right now. I'm having a blast. [Monster Hunter: World] PC is on hold until Behemoth is released."

If there's a solution, it's probably how Monster Hunter: World is positioned quite well to take advantage of the live-service model popular in the games industry right now. In the past, the Monster Hunter series has mostly relied on version refreshes that added new content and difficulty challenges. For instance, consider the jump from Monster Hunter Generations to Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, which added about 20 monsters. With a dedicated live-service focus, a new season of content wouldn't be far-fetched for Monster Hunter: World.

It's not like Monster Hunter: World isn't experimenting with DLC releases either. When Monster Hunter: World first released, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto announced regular DLC, the most recent being a Final Fantasy XIV crossover featuring the Final Fantasy monster Behemoth. It's proven to be quite a challenge for players.

The Kulve Taroth fight recently also added a new mode called Siege. Siege changes up the way hunters face the large monster, adding new content and new gameplay to Monster Hunter: World in a single DLC.

But when I asked if a more live-service model would better suit Monster Hunter: World and alleviate the endgame dearth, SkabbPirate tells us, "No, it's already too far in that direction. E.g. you can't do event quests whenever you want like in previous games, and instead you have to wait until the week they are active. That's extremely inconvenient."

A ResetEra thread asking a similar question is filled with responses about how it's not all just about monster count; and one redditor tells USgamer that comparing World to Generations Ultimate is not totally accurate.

"[Monster Hunter] Tri had 18 large monsters, several of which were despised by many due to water combat, which is a far cry from World's 30-something. Fans that forgot about Tri and only remember 4U and Gen/GenU can cry all they want, but the fact remains that games that change in graphics and gameplay dramatically are going to not have much content."

Even then, however, they admit, "It's quality over quantity, but MHW doesn't necessarily have enough quality to compensate when compared to games like GenUltimate."

So whether it really is the need for more monsters to hunt, greater challenges for replayability, or a diversity in experiences, largely the problem is clear. Monster Hunter: World players are looking for their next fix.

Check out our Monster Hunter: World guide and you too can wait around for more content after the endgame.