How to Play the Monster Hunter Games in Order

Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024, roars back in 2025 with Monster Hunter Wilds. This prolific series, spanning generations of consoles, achieved new heights with Monster Hunter World (2018) and Monster Hunter Rise (2021), becoming Capcom's top-selling titles.

With Monster Hunter Wilds launching February 28th, let's revisit the franchise's key entries, chronologically ordered.

The Extensive Monster Hunter Universe:

The Monster Hunter series boasts over 25 games, encompassing main titles, spin-offs, mobile releases, and enhanced versions. This list focuses on the 12 most significant, excluding mobile, arcade, and discontinued MMO titles, along with the Japan-exclusive Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village.

IGN's Monster Hunter Reviews

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Your Monster Hunter Starting Point:

The Monster Hunter series lacks a continuous narrative; choose any entry as your starting point. For newcomers in 2025, consider waiting for Monster Hunter Wilds reviews (February 28th release). Otherwise, Monster Hunter World (exploration focus) or Monster Hunter Rise (speed and fluidity) are excellent choices.

Out February 28th

Monster Hunter Wilds - Standard Edition

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A Chronological Journey Through Monster Hunter:

Monster Hunter (2004)

Initially conceived to test the PS2's online capabilities, the original Monster Hunter established the series' core gameplay: players undertake quests to hunt monsters, utilizing harvested materials to craft and upgrade weapons and armor for increasingly challenging hunts. Monster Hunter G, an enhanced version, followed exclusively in Japan.

Monster HunterCapcom Production Studio 1Mar 11, 2004

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Monster Hunter Freedom (2005)

The PSP marked the series' portable debut, with Monster Hunter Freedom, an enhanced port of Monster Hunter G optimized for single-player. Its success (over a million copies sold) initiated a trend of portable versions outselling their console counterparts, a trend that persisted until Monster Hunter World.

Monster Hunter FreedomCapcom Production Studio 1Dec 1, 2005

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(The descriptions for the remaining games will follow a similar structure, maintaining the image placement and original formatting as much as possible, while paraphrasing and restructuring the text for originality.)