Monster Hunter Rise is developed around teaming up for big hunts. Maybe you’re after Magnamalo plates or grinding through anomaly quests in the Sunbreak DLC—either way, the game wants you to play with others. But things get complex when your friends are on different platforms than yours. Monster Hunter Rise was launched on Nintendo Switch, and later arrived on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, which left players wondering: Is Monster Hunter Rise cross-platform? Can players across different platforms hunt together? In short, there’s no full cross-platform play, with a few specific exceptions.
It’s one of my favorite games released so far, on which I’ve spent massive hours across multiple platforms, and here’s how cross-platform, cross-gen, and cross-save work for the game.
What is Monster Hunter Rise?
Monster Hunter Rise is Capcom’s sixth mainline entry in the Monster Hunter series, released for Switch back in March 2021, later hit PC in January 2022, and finally came to PlayStation and Xbox in January 2023. The Sunbreak expansion followed the same pattern—released on Switch and PC first, then PlayStation and Xbox a bit later.
The game sticks to the classic Monster Hunter formula: find a monster, break its parts, craft better gear. But it speeds up the movement with Wirebugs for zipping around, Palamutes you can ride, and more aggressive combat. Multiplayer is a main part of it, in which you, with up to three other friends or randoms, can face Dino challenges together in the online hub.
Multiplayer in Monster Hunter Rise is controlled by online hubs instead of drop-in co-op. You either host a quest and wait for friends or others to join, or search for open hunts. Lobby’s difficulty scales based on player count, which creates a balanced play for solo campaign and squads. The system works well, but only within strict platform boundaries. The game wasn’t built as a single multiplayer entity, and that decision affects everything from matchmaking to save data.
- Related: Is Rocket League Cross-Platform?
Does Monster Hunter Rise Have Cross-Platform?
Monster Hunter Rise does not support full cross-platform play between any platforms. If you are on Nintendo Switch, you can only play with other Switch players. The same goes for PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam—they are all restricted to join platform-specific monster lobbies. Capcom confirmed this back when the PC version launched, and nothing has changed since in either the base game or Sunbreak expansion.
That said, there are a couple of crossplay exceptions if you stick within the same family of platforms.
Xbox and Windows (via Xbox App)
If you have Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, or the Xbox version on PC (either through the Xbox App or Game Pass), you can all play together. Saves and matchmaking work between these Xbox-linked platforms. But if you purchased the game on Steam, you’re out of luck—no crossplay there.
PlayStation Cross-Generation
PlayStation gamers can cross-game between PS4 and PS5. You don’t have to buy separate game copies to switch between consoles, and multiplayer works across the two Sony console editions.
For Nintendo Switch
Switch players are totally on their own because there’s no cross-platform play possible with PC, Xbox, or PlayStation, and no workaround exists.
Is Monster Hunter Rise Cross-generation?
Yes, and this is where things get a little easier. Here’s the current scenario for cross-gen:
- PS4 and PS5 players can party up together
- Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S players can play together
- Xbox players can also match with PC players, but only if the PC version is from the Xbox App.
Cross-generation in Monster Hunter Rise works very well because the game editions are the same within every platform family. You won’t run into performance issues that conflict with matchmaking or stability.
Is there Cross-save or Cross-progression?
Monster Hunter Rise doesn’t support cross-save across different platforms. A save file created on Switch can only stay on Nintendo’s console. Similarly, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox save progress doesn’t carry over if you switch systems. If you buy the new game copy on another platform, you will have to start from scratch.
The only exception is the same as the crossplay rules:
- Xbox consoles and the Xbox App on PC can share saves
- PS4 and PS5 can transfer save data between systems
Outside these boundaries, progression won’t carry over, and it’s true for the original game and Sunbreak DLC. Capcom has officially stated that cross-save and crossplay will not be added to Monster Hunter Rise retroactively.
- Related: Is Black Ops 3 Cross-Platform?
Will Monster Hunter Rise Ever Get Crossplay?
MH Rise was first launched as a Switch-exclusive with Nintendo-backed timed exclusivity. Because of that, its online setup is very much aligned towards that design. If Capcom wants to add cross-platform now, it would require matchmaking rework, account systems, and handling save files across platforms. Monster Hunter World faced similar restrictions, and Capcom didn’t bother fixing it there either. From what we know so far, they’re saving crossplay for new Monster Hunter games and won’t patch it into older ones.
Bottom Line
Monster Hunter Rise follows the same multiplayer philosophy as MH World, with strong co-op systems, but keeps every platform in its own separate bubble. Unlike modern live-service games, Monster Hunter still treats every ecosystem as a closed hunting ground. If you’re expecting Warzone-style cross-play, the game was never built for that. Future series releases are far more likely to come with cross-platform play enabled from day one, but there won’t be anything happening in Monster Hunter Rise.
