Monster Hunter Wilds Players Have a Theory About Its Performance Issues

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A player of Monster Hunter Wilds believes the game’s performance problems might be caused by checks for downloadable content. Capcom has received a lot of criticism about how the game runs on PCs, and although it’s improved since release, many players still experience framerate drops and similar issues. While a complete fix isn’t available yet, there’s evidence suggesting Monster Hunter Wilds actually runs smoother when all DLC is installed.

The newest Monster Hunter game, Monster Hunter Wilds, is a bit of a puzzle. Despite receiving good reviews – an 88 on Metacritic – many fans were disappointed, and it didn’t sell as well as Capcom hoped, even though it was their fastest-selling game initially. The main issue seems to be that people enjoy the game itself, but it hasn’t been running smoothly. Capcom has released several updates to fix these problems, and a recent discovery suggests the root cause might have been overlooked.

Monster Hunter Wilds Player Finds Performance Improves Significantly with All DLC Installed

A Reddit user named de_Tylmarande discovered a surprising issue with Monster Hunter Wilds: the game ran much smoother when played through Steam with all downloadable content (DLC) installed. They tested this on multiple computers and consistently found that disabling the game’s DLC check dramatically improved performance, boosting framerates from 20-25 FPS to over 80. While recent updates from Capcom have addressed performance issues, none have provided as significant an improvement as simply bypassing the DLC check.

Image via Capcom

Currently, the best explanation for this issue is that Monster Hunter Wilds constantly scans game files to check for downloadable content (DLC). These frequent checks use up a significant amount of the computer’s processing power. Surprisingly, the game actually runs better when you have DLC installed, likely because the checks are faster when they confirm you own the content. Some players are frustrated by this, as Monster Hunter Wilds has several paid cosmetic DLC packs, and they don’t want to have to buy them just to improve performance. However, one expert believes this is probably a bug and not an intentional tactic by Capcom to encourage DLC purchases.

While the PC performance issues might be caused by several factors, not just the DLC check, recent tests suggest this check is a significant contributor. Other players have also reported better performance when playing offline, which would bypass these checks. The player who discovered this has informed Capcom Support, so a fix is possible, but not certain. With the potential release of Monster Hunter Wilds on the Switch 2, improving how the game uses the CPU is important, and simplifying DLC checks could be a helpful step.

Image via Capcom

It’s worth watching to see if Capcom fixes this bug and how that affects future games. Wilds is still new, and with another Monster Hunter game planned for 2026, the series could really benefit from a positive update after last year’s challenges. Until then, players who don’t have the downloadable content will need to wait for Capcom to release a fix. However, a fan named de_Tylmarande has offered to share a mod they created to bypass the DLC check if Capcom doesn’t address the problem.

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2026-01-15 20:13