The record for highest concurrent users on Steam for a game launched in 2018 goes to Monster Hunter World, smashing the record set by… Monster Hunter World. Yes, after hitting around 240,000 concurrent users at launch, the game went on to climb to 340,000 concurrent users over the weekend, which makes this a rather silly record but a significant one. It shows a game not just hotly anticipated but one actually building momentum.
It’s difficult to know exactly how many copies the game has sold thanks to Valve’s new way of handling services like SteamSpy, but estimates place it between 2 million and 5 million copies on the platform, with other data pointing closer to the 2 million figure. For an obscure title that had long been released only in Japan, it’s still an amazing number, and it seems to indicate that the title is doing quite well for itself. Even with the issues that the port has had.
Meanwhile, according to the Wall Street Journal, Tencent was forced to yank Monster Hunter World from its digital shelves in China thanks to Chinese regulators, who have apparently rescinded its license to operate in the region. It’s not entirely clear why, as Tencent isn’t talking (yet?) and China’s official explanation refers only to a “large number of complaints” regarding content (WSJ offers the notion that it’s the depiction of corpses that tripped censors). Those players affected will be refunded, and it’s a lot of folks: over a million preorders in China alone.
