Games like Monster Hunter World
The three best games after Monster Hunter: World are Monster Hunter Rise (more of exactly this, faster and portable-flavoured), Nioh 2 (the combat depth, aimed at duels instead of hunts) and Deep Rock Galactic (the best four-friend mission night in the genre's orbit). Nine entries ranked below — including Monster Hunter Wilds, which is currently the skip, with numbers.
Monster Hunter: World is a loop dressed as a safari: prepare, hunt something enormous, carve it into a better hat, repeat — 89% positive across 515,000 Steam reviews, and the entry that finally made the series make sense to the West. 'Games like it' means the loop: preparation that matters, fights that are earned, and friends yelling coordinates.
The nine entries below are ranked by which part of the loop they feed — the hunt, the build, or the co-op night. One is a deliberate skip, and it is the awkward one: the newest Monster Hunter itself.
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How we picked these
- Big fights that reward preparation, not just reflexes.
- Progress you wear: gear, builds or mastery visibly earned.
- Co-op that makes the loop better without carrying you through it.
- A hundred hours available without the game running dry.
- Steam ratings quoted per entry — especially where they sting.
The list
01 MONSTER HUNTER RISE
Monster Hunter Rise is the direct answer: the same hunt-carve-craft loop at a faster tempo, with wirebug movement that turns positioning into acrobatics. 83% positive across 125,000 reviews — lighter and less grounded than World, which is precisely why half the fanbase prefers it and half never will. With Sunbreak it is hundreds of hours.
02 Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition
Nioh 2 takes World's combat depth and points it at duels: stances, ki management, and a skill ceiling that makes hunters feel at home immediately. 87% across 50,000 reviews. The loot firehose replaces the crafting grind — different economy, same 'my build, my hands' satisfaction.
03 Deep Rock Galactic
Deep Rock Galactic is the co-op night, perfected: four dwarves, procedurally-dug caves, and class design so complementary it should be taught. 97% positive across 379,000 reviews. The hunt becomes a mission and the monster becomes a swarm — the social loop of Monster Hunter survives the translation completely. Rock and stone.
04 Valheim
Valheim is secretly a hunting game: every biome boss demands preparation — food, potions, gear tiers, a summoning ritual — exactly like readying a hunt. 94% across 540,000 reviews. The difference is you build the base camp yourself, and the walk to the fight is half the adventure.
05 The First Berserker: Khazan
The First Berserker: Khazan is for the player whose favourite hunts were the ones that nearly killed them: boss-gauntlet action with deflect-heavy combat and real build variety, at 85% across 31,000 reviews. No open zones, no gathering — the fight is the whole meal.
06 Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is the single-player safari: robot dinosaurs with breakable parts, elemental weakpoints and fights you plan before you start. 88% across 128,000 reviews. The monster-anatomy half of World in a story-driven open world — solo hunters land here happiest.
07 REMNANT II
Remnant II is the hunt with guns: souls-structured co-op where bosses hide secret kill methods and builds transform runs. 82% positive across 68,000 reviews. Its procedural worlds mean your squad's campaign genuinely differs from another squad's — the co-op discovery chatter of early World, recreated.
08 GOD EATER 3
GOD EATER 3 is the anime cousin, flagged honestly: the hunt loop at double speed with a 79% rating that reflects repetitive missions as much as any flaw. It exists on this list for one reason — when the itch is specifically 'Monster Hunter but faster and sillier', nothing else is shaped like it.
SKIP09 Monster Hunter Wilds
Skip Monster Hunter Wilds today, painful as that is to type — 49% positive across 328,000 Steam reviews, overwhelmingly about PC performance that Capcom has patched slowly. The hunting underneath is real Monster Hunter; the frame rate is not. World with Iceborne is the better purchase until the tech verdict changes — and when it does, this note changes first.
Similar but different
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is the fight without the farm: World's boss discipline in FromSoft's open world, at 93% across 1.1 million reviews. Hunters who mainly lived for the wall-fights — Nergigante, Fatalis — tend to feel immediately at home.
Risk of Rain 2
Risk of Rain 2 compresses the gear-power loop into 40-minute runs: co-op, escalating bosses, builds that go gloriously wrong. 94% across 351,000 reviews. The 'one more hunt' chemical in roguelike form.
Terraria
Terraria runs the same deep loop in 2D: preparation, arena-building, boss, better gear, repeat to the endgame. 97% across 1.5 million reviews. Boss-prep nights with friends feel unmistakably like hunt prep.
FAQ
Should I buy Wilds or World in 2026?
World, and it is not close today: Iceborne included, a fraction of the price, and none of Wilds' performance lottery (49% on Steam as of this writing). Wilds' hunting is genuinely good — buy it the day the performance verdict flips, not before.
World or Rise if I am starting fresh?
World for weight and spectacle, Rise for speed and generosity. World is the fuller introduction to why the series matters; Rise respects your time more. Wrong answers do not exist here — both loops are hundreds of hours.
What is closest for a fixed four-player group?
Deep Rock Galactic, unambiguously — it is built for exactly that social shape and never wastes a session. Remnant II is the pick if your group wants bosses and builds over swarms.
I play solo. Which of these respect that?
Horizon Zero Dawn and Khazan are built solo-first, and Nioh 2 plays superbly alone. World itself remains excellent solo — and Valheim solo is a quieter, stranger, very good time.
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