Claim it. Monster Hunter Rise is free on PS Plus Essential until April 7 — normally $39.99 on PlayStation Store — and it’s the best game in the March lineup by a wide margin. That said, the base game has a ceiling. The real endgame lives in the Sunbreak expansion, which costs $39.99 separately. Know that going in, and you’ll have a much better time.
Here’s everything you need to make that call.
What Is Monster Hunter Rise?
Rise is Capcom’s fourth-gen Monster Hunter entry — launched on Nintendo Switch in 2021 before coming to PS4 and PS5 in January 2022. The PS5 version is what you’ll download, and it’s the best way to play: 60 FPS, 4K support, and dramatically better textures than the Switch original. If you tried Rise on Switch and bounced off the performance, this version is a different experience.
The loop is simple: take a quest, track a monster, fight it, carve its parts, craft better gear, fight bigger monsters. It sounds like a grind because it kind of is — but when the hunting clicks, it clicks hard. Players on r/MHRise regularly report 250+ hours in Rise and Sunbreak combined without realizing where the time went.
What Rise Does Differently From Monster Hunter World
If World (2018) was your entry point to the franchise, Rise has a different feel. The big mechanical addition is the Wirebug — a grappling hook tool that lets you swing around arenas, recover from knockdowns mid-air, and fire off special weapon attacks called Silkbind moves. Every one of Rise’s 14 weapon types has its own Silkbind attacks, which means weapon mastery goes deeper than it did in World.
The setting is Japanese folklore-inspired: Kamura Village, feudal aesthetics, paper lanterns, giant torii gates. The maps are more vertical and open than World’s. The art style is more colorful and anime-coded — not better or worse than World, just different.
Co-op supports up to 4 players online. Claim it this month alongside friends — March is exactly the window where everyone suddenly has the same game. You’ll want a DualSense controller ready for the full PS5 experience.
How Long Is Monster Hunter Rise?
Per HowLongToBeat: 23.5 hours for the main story. 182 hours for 100% completion in the base game alone.
That’s enough to figure out if Monster Hunter is your thing, find your favorite weapon, and finish the main campaign — all without touching your wallet.
The Sunbreak Situation
The ResetEra thread when this lineup was announced put it plainly: “Rise is awesome but you really need Sunbreak so this isn’t saving you much when you need to buy the expansion anyway.”
That’s not entirely wrong. Here’s the breakdown:
Sunbreak adds Master Rank quests (a full tier above High Rank), the flagship monster Malzeno — widely considered one of Capcom’s best flagship designs in years — a new hub called Elgado Outpost, and Follower Quests, a mechanic that lets NPCs join your hunts. That last one is a genuine lifesaver for solo players who don’t want to call in randoms. HowLongToBeat puts Sunbreak’s main story at 33 hours. Combined with Rise, players chasing everything are looking at 250+ hours total.
Sunbreak currently runs $39.99 on PlayStation Store. It launched at that price in 2022 and hasn’t dropped much on PSN — though it hits sales periodically. On Steam, it can be found for $15–20 during major sales.
The honest math: You’re getting Rise for $0. If Sunbreak goes on sale for $15–20, your total for a 250-hour game is $15–20. At full PSN price, you’re at $39.99 for the expansion — still reasonable, but worth knowing before you hit the base game’s endgame wall and wonder what happened.
Claim Rise regardless. You’re not committing to anything, and the base game’s 23+ hours stand on their own.
Is This a Good Entry Point Before Monster Hunter Wilds?
Yes. Monster Hunter Wilds (released February 28, 2025) is the best game in the series right now and the most accessible starting point Capcom has ever designed. But it’s $59.99–$69.99 and not free anywhere.
Rise is the next best option, and it’s on PS Plus right now. If you’ve been curious about the franchise but didn’t want to drop $60 to find out you don’t like it, this is exactly the right test. Fair warning: the first 5–10 hours of any Monster Hunter game move slowly. Rise is no exception. Push through to High Rank hunts — around HR 4–5 — and you’ll know whether this is your thing.
What You’re Getting Free This Month
The full March PS Plus Essential lineup, available until April 7:
- Monster Hunter Rise — OpenCritic 87, top 15 best-reviewed games of 2021
- PGA Tour 2K25 — covered in our PS Plus March 2026 roundup
- Slime Rancher 2 — cozy farming sim, 20+ hours
- The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road — full expansion suite, usually $60+ if bought standalone
Monster Hunter Rise is the standout. ESO is a close second if you want an endless MMO. But Rise is the one with replay value measured in years, not weeks.
Verdict
OpenCritic 87. 60 FPS on PS5. Free until April 7. Twenty-three hours of main story without spending a dollar, with a path to 250+ hours if Sunbreak goes on sale.
The only reason not to claim it: you’re certain you’ll never play a monster-hunting action RPG. Even then, adding it to your library costs nothing — games have a way of becoming relevant again when a sequel drops or a friend gets into the series.
Claim it. The deadline is April 7, 2026.
For more free gaming this month: check out our full PS Plus March 2026 roundup, and if you’re a Game Pass subscriber, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 just hit the service this month — 87 on Metacritic and also free with a subscription.
