The third-person action RPG,Monster Hunter Wilds, is, without a doubt, one of the biggest releases of 2025. Although there hasn’t been a shortage ofMonster Huntercontent lately, it’s been a while since Capcom has developed a game in the series specifically with home consoles in mind. The franchise’s last mainline entry, 2021’sMonster Hunter Rise, was well-received, but it was only available on the Nintendo Switch at launch.Monster Hunter Wilds, on the other hand, is a proper successor to 2018’sMonster Hunter: World, the lastMonster Huntergame for home consoles.
Reviews forMonster Hunter Wildswent live about a few days before the game’s release and, so far, they have been incredibly positive. On OpenCritic, the game has an 89/100 Top Critic Average and a 95% Critics Recommend rating. Meanwhile, on Metacritic, it has a 90/100 Metascore on PlayStation 5. These scores makeMonster Hunter Wildsthe highest-rated game of 2025 at the moment, with Warhorse Studios’Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2being only a little bit behind. While the critical success ofMonster Hunter Wildsis undeniably a major accomplishment, it isn’t quite the highest-rated game in theMonster Hunterfranchise.
Monster Hunter Wilds is Critically-Acclaimed, But It’s Not the Highest-Rated MH Game
Prior to Monster Hunter 3, Early MH Games Were Met With Mixed-to-Positive Reviews
TheMonster Hunterseries has been around for over 20 years, and it is easily one ofCapcom’s most prolific IPs. Excluding expansions and expanded re-releases of existing games, there are currently 17 installments in the franchise, most of which are spin-offs of some kind. Although the series has almost always done well in Japan, earlyMonster Hunterentries weren’t that popular in the West, in part due to their mixed critical reception overseas.Monster Hunter(2004), for example, got a measly 68/100 score on Metacritic, while the PSP-exclusiveMonster Hunter Freedom 2only received a 72/100 Metascore.
The first mainline installment intheMonster Hunterseriesthat received glowing reviews from Western publications was 2009’sMonster Hunter 3, which earned an 84/100 rating on Metacritic. The game’s successor,Monster Hunter 4, was initially not launched in the West, but its expanded edition,Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate, eventually made its worldwide debut in 2015. Surprisingly, this title scored even higher thanMonster Hunter 3did, as it obtained an 86/100 on both OpenCritic and Metacritic. The 3DS-exclusiveMonster Hunterspin-off, Monster Hunter Generations, came out around the same time and earned a similarly high score on the two aforementioned sites: an 85/100.
2004
68/100
2005
Expanded edition ofMonster Hunter(2004), only released in Japan
71/100
2006
Famitsu score is 37/40, only released in Japan
2007
Defunct MMO, only released in Japan
72/100
New PSP game based off ofMonster Hunter 2
2008
81/100
Expanded edition ofMonster Hunter Freedom 2
2009
84/100
2010
Only released in Japan
N/A
New PSP game based off ofMonster Hunter 3, Famitsu score is 39/40, only released in Japan
2011
69/100
Delisted mobile game
82/100
Expanded edition ofMonster Hunter 3
2013
Famitsu score is 38/40, only released in Japan
Updated version ofMonster Hunter Frontier Online, only released in Japan
2014
86/100
95%
Expanded edition ofMonster Hunter 4
2015
85/100
2016
79/100
68%
Renamed version ofMonster Hunter Frontier Online, only released in Japan
2017
80/100
78/100
69%
2018
90/100
96%
2019
89/100
2021
88/100
85%
2022
93%
2023
73/100
Mobile game
2025
Monster Hunter World is the Highest-Rated Game in the MH Series
Back whenMonster Hunter 4andMonster Hunter Generationswere released, theMonster Hunterfranchise was quite popular, but it hadn’t achieved international fame just yet. That all changed with the debut ofMonster Hunter: World, however. This game, which was the fifth mainline entry in theMonster Hunterseries, came out on the PS4 and Xbox One in January 2018, and it was met with rave reviews.Monster Hunter: Worldnot only garnered an astounding 90/100 Top Critic Average and a 96% Critics Recommend score on OpenCritic, it also received a 90/100 average on Metacritic.Its standalone expansion,Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, earned the same exact ratings as the base game on OpenCritic, and was just one point lower on Metacritic (89/100).
To this day,Monster Hunter: Worldis still the most critically-acclaimed game in theMonster Hunterfranchise. Even thoughMonster Hunter Wildshas gotten close to surpassingMonster Hunter: Worldin this regard, it isn’t quite there just yet. Although the two games have the exact same ratings on Metacritic,Monster Hunter Wilds' Top Critic Average and Critics Recommend ratings are both one point behindMonster Hunter:Worldon OpenCritic. Long story short,Monster Hunter Wildsis the secondhighest-ratedMonster Huntergameever made and, even though it may not be seen as the best entry in the series by critics, it will likely end up in Game of the Year discussions when 2025 comes to an end.
