When does the Monster Hunter Wilds open beta start, and how do you get access?

Monster Hunter Wilds’s open beta gives you a chance to play the next major entry in Capcom’s long-running action role-playing series a few months early.

While available to all players, those on PlayStation 5 (with an active PlayStation Plus subscription) also get a period of early access.

Whenever you can participate, you’ll receive several beta rewards to take with you in the full release, as well as your custom created character and palico, when the game launches in full on Feb. 28, 2025.

Here’s how to access the Monster Hunter Wilds open beta on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC, including start and end times, as well as details for the aforementioned bonuses for taking part.

Monster Hunter Wilds’s beta takes place in two periods across a single week, the first being exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers on PS5 for the first few days, before being expanded to all platforms (and for PS5, non-PlayStation Plus subscribers) as the weekend approaches.

Here are the Monster Hunter Wilds beta dates in North America, and for which platforms:

For those in Europe and Japan, add a day to the start and end dates listed above, and/or use the following times to know exactly when you can start playing in your region.

The PlayStation Plus period of Monster Hunter Wilds’s open beta will start at the following times in your time zone:

The above times are also the time each period will end — so for those in North America, it’ll end on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. PDT / 11 p.m. EDT.

As with all betas, go in with the expectation that there may be some server issues, especially at the beginning of the test. This is something Capcom itself has mentioned, saying the purpose of the beta “is to verify certain elements such as network load” and as such, “cannot guarantee a stable gameplay experience.”

The start of the Monster Hunter Wilds’s open beta is only available to PlayStation Plus subscribers on PlayStation 5. The second period, starting Oct. 31, is available to all players across Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation, including non-PlayStation Plus subscribers.

To get access, there is no pre-order, sign-ups or keys necessary — simply head to your platform’s storefront and download the open beta client.

A pre-load will be available 24 hours ahead of each platform’s start time, meaning you can start playing as soon as the test begins.

The Monster Hunter Wilds open beta will feature the following:

You can read more about this opening few hours of the game with our recent hands-on preview that made Polygon’s own Michael McWhertor “a believer in its ecosystem.”

By participating in the open beta, you’ll claim two rewards to take into the full game upon release:

The requirement for unlocking these is simply creating a character, which is then imported into the full game — so provided you do that, regardless of how much you then play, the above rewards are yours. Note that an online connection is required for these elements to carry over.