Monster Hunter World is one of very few games whose expansion can bring back the majority of players.

With the launch of Monster Hunter World’s big Iceborne expansion on PC last week, the game once again returned to having high player counts on Steam.

Since Thursday, numbers continued to steadily climb every following day, peaking at an impressive 284,524 concurrent players late on Sunday. This effectively earned it the third spot on Steam’s most played games, below heavyweights PUBG, CS:GO and Dota 2.

284,524 players is big for any game, but it’s doubly so in Monster Hunter World’s case because it comes close to the game’s all-time record of 334,684 concurrent players.

The figure from the weekend could get another boost this week, but it proves the game’s initial popularity wasn’t a fluke, and that many of those who picked it up in 2018 have returned to experience Iceborne.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, however. Iceborne currently has a Mixed user review rating on Steam, after it initially started with a Negative rating.

This can be attributed to a number of PC problems introduced with the expansion, such as a performance hit for seemingly no reason, and the issue of save files getting deleted for some players.

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Capcom is looking into these problems, but they’ve likely swayed some players from making a purchase now. Catch up on what you might have missed in Iceborne with the help of our guides for the new Clutch Claw, unlocking the the Raider Ride in Hoarfrost Reach and more.