The recent release of Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak has seen an explosion of popularity for the game. As a result, the release of the expansion has even surpassed the game’s PC launch by over 60000 players.
When Monster Hunter Rise first released on PC back in January, the game reached a peak player number of roughly 130000 according to SteamCharts. But on June 30 with the release of the Sunbreak DLC, that record has been broken with almost 200000 concurrent players within the 24 hours of the expansion’s launch.
Part of this could be explained by the game’s staggered initial release. The game originally released in March 2021 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, while the PC release didn’t come out until January of 2022. This could have led to some Monster Hunter fans picking up the Switch version and the PC version, and overall impacting the hype around the game’s PC launch. However with this expansion, both PC and Switch players are receiving new content at the same time.
The new DLC will include a plethora of new monsters and maps with which to hunt them in. Highlights include new monsters and variants like Blood Orange Bishaten, and also the return of old favorites like Seregios and Gore Magala. The announcement of Gore Magala was particularly noteworthy, as the monster was the “Flagship Monster” of Monster Hunter 4 and included unique mechanics relevant to that game’s story.
In addition to new monsters and maps, there’s also the release of “G Rank”, a difficulty greater than High Rank and typically defines the end-game of a Monster Hunter title. In G Rank, players have to carefully plan their hunts and upgrade their gear, as the difficulty of monsters can vary greatly within G Rank depending on their species.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.
