Monster Hunter Wilds struggles with performance on consoles

One of the most highly anticipated games of 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds, has fallen short of expectations on consoles, with technical analysts reporting issues with image quality and performance on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

As the successor to Monster Hunter: World—Capcom’s best-selling game—Wilds had high expectations to meet. However, early technical reviews indicate the game struggles to maintain consistent performance across its various display modes.

Digital Foundry recently analyzed the three display modes available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, evaluating their impact on resolution and performance.

Among the three, only Resolution Mode runs at 60 FPS, but it comes at the cost of visual clarity. This mode targets 900p resolution but can drop as low as 720p during demanding scenes, occasionally scaling up to 1080p. These fluctuations result in noticeable blurriness and reduced detail, including downgraded reflections and simplified textures.

The game uses AMD FSR 1 upscaling to reach 4K resolution, but the lack of additional image-enhancement techniques leaves the visuals looking worse overall.

The worst-performing mode not only suffers from severe visual downgrades—such as the removal of screen space reflections and lower texture quality—but also experiences frequent frame rate drops below 30 FPS, making for a less enjoyable gameplay experience.

Monster Hunter Wilds is available for pre-order now and launches on February 28, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam.

Capcom has already planned post-launch content, with the first major update arriving in spring 2025. This update will introduce the water monster Mizutsune to the Forbidden Lands, along with new Event Quests and other content. Another monster is set to arrive in summer 2025, with more surprises on the way.