The 10 Best Monster Hunter Games

For the last 20 years Capcom’s Monster Hunter series has captured fans’ hearts with its exhilarating mix of careful strategy and heart-pounding monster battles. From its humble beginnings on the PlayStation 2 in 2004 to topping the charts in 2018 with Monster Hunter World, the series has evolved a lot in the last two decades.

While every Monster Hunter game is unique in its own way, we’ve ranked the entire list of games plus the biggest DLCs, to determine which is the very best. One note to consider – given that Capcom has released multiple versions of some of the games, our ranking only takes into consideration the Ultimate versions of each of these. So with that cleared up, let’s kick things off…

10. Monster Hunter

The original Monster Hunter laid the foundation for everything to come in the 20 years that followed. Its obtuse directions and control scheme might make it harder to revisit than most of the other games on this list, but the core pillars of what makes Monster Hunter great are still present. Taking on larger-than-life beasts with nothing but a weapon and a knack for survival helped set it apart in 2004, even if its steep learning curve made it a somewhat frustrating experience for players at the time.

Developed as part of an initiative at Capcom to focus on online games for the PlayStation 2, Monster Hunter’s primary focus is through its online event missions. While it’s a bummer that official servers are no longer online outside of Japan, the single-player still lets players experience the hunts that kicked off a new genre.

9. Monster Hunter Freedom

Monster Hunter Freedom released on the PlayStation Portable in Japan in 2005, and followed everywhere else a year later. It was the first handheld game in the series and is an expanded and re-tuned version of Monster Hunter G.

Although Freedom includes everything from Monster Hunter G and adds in a number of quality of life improvements, the biggest jump was giving Monster Hunter a new home on a portable device. It was the catalyst that pushed Monster Hunter to a whole new audience, putting co-op front and center and bringing together millions of players as they teamed up to hunt, no matter where they were.

Despite its clunky controls and wonky camera – which really demonstrate how far the games have evolved – Freedom is still a lot of fun to play. True, it’s not the best Monster Hunter game but it’s certainly one of the most important, and became the blueprint for the future of the series’ handheld games.

8. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is an expanded version of Monster Hunter Freedom 2, which itself is an expanded version of Monster Hunter 2, which was only released in Japan. It was easily the largest game in the series when it was released and introduced new monsters that have gone on to become high points for the series, including black panther-cross-lizard wyvern, Nargacuga. It was also the first time the much-loved Felyne companions joined you on the battlefield, and while they might not have helped overcome some of Freedom Unite’s tougher challenges, they made the journey a lot more enjoyable.

7. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate was built off of the bones of 2010’s Monster Hunter Tri, but with a restructured story and difficulty curve to create a more streamlined experience that included new monsters and quests to keep things fresh. Furthermore, Ultimate 3 brought back the Hunting Horn, Bow, Gunlance, and Dual Blades – which were missing from Tri – to give a more rounded roster of weapons for players to wield.

It’s therefore no surprise that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the definitive Monster Hunter 3 experience. New encounters like underwater fighting added a lot of variety to keep everything feeling fresh, even if you had to wrestle with the camera to make it work properly. And while online multiplayer on the Wii U was not as advanced as it was on other consoles, co-op is so integral to the Monster Hunter experience that its inclusion was a must.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the natural evolution of everything that came before it and is a strong contender for one of the better monster hunting experiences. It’s showing its age now though, leaving room for other games…

6. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate marked an important turning point for the series. While local co-op was always Monster Hunter’s bread and butter on handheld consoles, dedicated online multiplayer finally arrived in 4 Ultimate, delivering a true leap forward for the series. Now it didn’t matter where your friends were – as long as everyone had access to wifi you could party up and take on a hunt from anywhere in the world.

Additionally, Capcom debuted Apex Monsters to give skilled players true endgame challenges to test their mettle against, and these are easily some of the toughest fights in the series to date. Other improvements included a huge roster of monsters to hunt and the addition of vertical movement, which transformed how the game played and almost doubled the size of the map. Monster Hunter 4 really was a leap forward for the series, but it’s still not the best the series has to offer.

5. Monster Hunter Rise

2021’s Monster Hunter Rise brought the series back home to handhelds after jumping to consoles and PC with Monster Hunter World in 2018. Originally exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, Rise took what Capcom learned from making bigger-scale Monster Hunter games on consoles and refined them for handhelds, delivering a faster-paced game with more streamlined features for a smoother overall experience.

Monster Hunter Rise introduced Palamutes, the rideable dog companions that allowed for easier and speedier movement around Rise’s maps. It was a welcomed addition that Capcom seems to be repeating, by bringing back Seikrets in Monster Hunter Wilds. Combined with the new Wirebug mechanic, which unlocked new weapon attacks and let you grapple high up into the air like your favorite anime protagonist, Rise brought a sense of scale previously only found on the console versions of Monster Hunter games.

Whether it was decimating monsters with acrobatic stunts or soaking up the serene vibe of Kamura Village, Monster Hunter Rise proves that, after scaling up for Monster Hunter World, all those big design ideas could be scaled down to create one of the best handheld Monster Hunter experiences in the entire series.

4. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

The follow up to Monster Hunter Rise was a massive expansion called Sunbreak, which added an all new location, ferocious new monsters, and a revised weapons system that added freshness to the fights. While Sunbreak doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it makes Rise’s already amazing experience even better.

Perhaps the most memorable thing about Sunbreak is how Capcom delivered full-fledged gothic horror vibes thanks to the new Citadel castle location and fascinating monster designs inspired by vampires and werewolves. It also addressed the series’ previous lack of endgame content by adding super tough hunts designed to challenge even the most experienced players.

Sunbreak’s gothic setting might be one of the most beautiful locales ever introduced in the series but the true brilliance of this monster-sized expansion remains the final fight against the vampiric flagship monster, Malzeno, and the horrors of its life-stealing abilities.

3. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

In many ways, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate is Capcom’s swansong to the last decade of Monster Hunter games. Alongside a hugely satisfying customization suite for hunters, Generations Ultimate also features the largest roster of monsters across the entire series. With 93 large monsters, Generations Ultimate is like a greatest hits from your favorite band.

Unlike most other Monster Hunter games, Generations Ultimate features Hunter Styles, which can radically change the way you play. In addition to the usual weapon types, Hunting Styles gave every weapon four unique movesets to choose from, dramatically increasing the fighting styles on offer. Veteran players could stick with the standard Guild style they’re familiar with, or experiment with new styles like Striker, which let players chain together Hunting Arts, turning them into special moves to learn and master.

This deep level of customization was hugely experimental and tremendously fun. Combined with endless hours of hunts, Generations Ultimate is a victory lap for the series, a triumphant showpiece of the iconic monster designs and the joys of playing with friends and family.

2. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Capcom followed up the hugely successful Monster Hunter World with the large-scale expansion, Iceborne, and to this day it remains our second-favorite Monster Hunter experience in the entire series. Iceborne’s massive new campaign and long list of hunts makes it feel like a proper sequel to World rather than just an expansion.

The Guiding Lands – a hodgepodge of previous zones mashed together – created an entirely seamless experience that felt like a highlight reel of all the best parts of Monster Hunter World in one area. It also added countless quality-of-life improvements to what was already one of the best games in the series.

But it was Iceborne’s new monsters that really stuck with fans, and Savage Deviljho, Velkhana, and Fatalis are considered by many to be some of the best monsters in any game in the series. Indeed, Iceborne could’ve made it to the top spot in this list if it wasn’t for the original game that came before it…

1. Monster Hunter: World

2018’s Monster Hunter: World kicked off a global frenzy for Monster Hunter like no other game in the series. After years of primarily being a handheld game and labeled with the caveat “Big in Japan”, World brought the series back to its console roots on PlayStation and Xbox, and rocketed it to an entirely new audience.

Monster Hunter: World’s foundation was rock solid because it offered players some of the largest open zones in the series and emphasized the pure excitement hunters have while tracking and hunting enormous monsters. Indeed, it’s Monster Hunter: World’s sense of scale that sets head and shoulders above its peers. Whether it’s seeing a Rathalos swooping down and flying away with a weakened Anjanath, or witnessing a Diablos burst in on your hunt, Monster Hunter: World didn’t just create a breathtaking setting to play around in, it made you feel like you were in the middle of a sophisticated ecosystem of apex predators all fighting for supremacy.

From the dense jungle to the high cliffs of the Coral Highlands, exploring World’s diverse environments felt like traveling the globe, bolstered by unique monsters designed to perfectly compliment its surroundings. There is a sense of place for everything, including the endemic life that makes Monster Hunter: World almost like a nature documentary, except, y’know, fun. What’s more, Monster Hunter: World’s story was given a much needed facelift thanks to high quality cutscenes made possible by running on more powerful home consoles, which only added to the brilliant sandbox world.

So World is not only a must-have for both fans of Monster Hunter and newcomers alike, but it’s an all-time great video game period.