Steam users are being hunted by Monster Hunter: World notifications

The PC port of Monster Hunter: World has a few quirks. Luckily, many of them have already been patched out and Capcom says its working on cleaning up the rest. The modder who fixed Nier: Automata's PC port is also on the case. But one of the game's strangest habits still remains: Steam won't stop telling players their friends are playing Monster Hunter. 

While you're playing Monster Hunter: World, Steam constantly sends out notifications to your friends which are usually reserved for when you start playing a game. We're talking once a minute, if not more frequently. Players have speculated that this is due to checks run by the game's multiplayer and that some wires got crossed in Steam, causing it to repeatedly confirm you're playing. 

Whatever the reason, it sure is annoying. If you're playing Monster Hunter: World yourself, the notification spam can cover the item wheel in the corner of the screen. And if you're not playing World, or really even if you are, you probably don't want to get notifications every 30 seconds. But clearly people are: the Steam forums and Monster Hunter subreddit are stuffed with players desperately seeking a solution to the notification choir.

The ironic thing is that people were so excited to see Monster Hunter: World smash the record for biggest Japanese Steam launch. Lots of people are playing it, like plenty of your Steam friends, which means you have people to hunt with. Great! Now Steam won't shut up about it. Not great! And sure, you could just turn off your Steam notifications, but busting out the nuclear option over one game seems a little excessive. Here's hoping a tidier fix is released soon.  

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.