War Thunder
War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armoured vehicles, and naval craft, from the early 20th century to the most advanced modern combat units. Join now and take part in major battles on land, in the air, and at sea.
Your like matters. Every heart nudges this game's GamingPickz Score and where it ranks (a small 5% of the score), so the lists get better for everyone.
- Released
- 2012
- Developer
- Gaijin Entertainment
- Platforms
- 6 systems
- Critics
- 81
- Steam Deck
- verified
- Download
- 70 GB
What is War Thunder?
War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armoured vehicles, and naval craft, from the early 20th century to the most advanced modern combat units. Join now and take part in major battles on land, in the air, and at sea.
Description as published by the developer on its own store page, read 30 August 2026. It is marketing copy, not our assessment.
The record
| First released | 1 November 2012 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Gaijin Entertainment |
| Publisher | Gaijin Entertainment |
| Platforms | PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Steam Deck |
| Genres | MMORPG, Simulation |
| Languages | 18 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q4052939, seeded 30 August 2026. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was War Thunder received?
Method. Player figures are Steam's own totals for the PC version, read 30 August 2026. The Metacritic score is the one Steam publishes on its store page and can lag the site itself. Metacritic page. Neither is our opinion. We have not published a review of this game.
Accessibility
Seeing
- Color Alternatives
- Camera Comfort
Hearing
- Custom Volume Controls
- Stereo Sound
- Surround Sound
Input
- Full controller support
- Playable without Timed Input
Difficulty
None declared
Method. Features the publisher declared on its own store page. A declaration is a floor, not a review.
What does it support?
| Capability | Support |
|---|---|
| Controller | full support |
| Cloud saves | No |
| Cross-platform play | Yes |
| Mod support | No official workshop |
| Online play | Yes |
| In-game purchases | Yes |
| Steam Deck | verified |
| Download size | 70 GB |
| Add-on content | 35 DLC listed |
| Age gate | None |
Method. Read from the publisher's Steam listing on 30 August 2026. Describes the PC version. Console versions differ.
What does it cost?
Steam price in US dollars, read 30 August 2026. Prices move hourly and vary by region. Check the current price.
Is War Thunder worth it?
71% of 779,529 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Mostly Positive. It is free to play, and critics score it 81/100.
That is the data, not a verdict for sale: whether it is worth it depends on the price you pay and what you want. Players do report problems — see the reported-problems section below before buying. We have not published our own review of this game.
How long is War Thunder? How long to beat it
Total play time for War Thunder is about 4627.7 hours to do everything, and around 814 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 814h | 19 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 1630.4h | 5 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 4627.7h | 5 |
War Thunder is free to play, so the only cost is your time: about 814 hours to beat it.
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
War Thunder system requirements
The minimum requirements from War Thunder's Steam page. These are what it takes to launch and be playable, not to run at high settings.
| Memory | 4 GB RAM (other games at this level) |
|---|---|
| Processor | Dual-Core 2.2 GHz |
| Storage | 70 GB (more games this size) |
| System | 64-bit OS required |
Where War Thunder sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueWar Thunder plotted on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so its position is its real one. Change either axis to see where it lands.
1 games have both
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- Multi-platform
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
War Thunder price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: Free on 30 August 2026. Prices are checked daily from here, and this becomes a chart once there is more than one point to join. A single observation is a price, not a history.
Latest War Thunder updates & patch notes
Pulled from War Thunder's own Steam feed on 5 September 2026. Posts marked as from the studio were written by the developer; the rest are articles Steam syndicated from elsewhere. Every one links to its source.
What readers say about War Thunder
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
Loading reviews…
Problems players report
We read the 300 most recent negative Steam reviews of War Thunder on 30 August 2026 and counted what they mention. These are complaints, not confirmed defects: we have not reproduced any of them, and a review describes one person's machine. What the counts tell you is which problems more than one person ran into.
- Monetisation inside the game12 of 300 (4%)
The game is basically pay to win and they don't even see it as embarrassing or try to hide it.
Steam review, 23 August 2026 · 571 hours played · 7 readers marked it helpfulA substantial portion of new content is locked behind a paywall rather than being available through normal progression.
Steam review, 25 August 2026 · 3,561 hours played · 4 readers marked it helpful
A further 4 reviews call the game buggy or broken without saying how, which is why they are counted separately rather than assigned to a theme. Counted by keyword across review text, so a review discussing two problems is counted under both. Read the reviews yourself.
Did it run on your PC?
Tell other players how it ran on your machine. One tap, from your saved PC if you have one.
Where War Thunder appears
The ranked lists and finder pages War Thunder qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Games like War Thunder
24 games overlap with War Thunder on the tags Steam players applied to it, on genre, and on theme. The closest are World of Tanks, World of Warships and DCS World Steam Edition.
War Thunder head to head
See War Thunder compared side by side, on score, price, specs and more:
Common questions about War Thunder
What platforms is War Thunder on?
War Thunder is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Steam Deck. It first released in 2012.
Is War Thunder free?
Yes. War Thunder is free to download on Steam. It carries in-game purchases.
Do players recommend War Thunder?
71% of 779,529 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Mostly Positive. That is players rating it, not our review. We have not published a review of this game.
What is the Metacritic score for War Thunder?
81 out of 100 for the PC version, as published on the game's own Steam store page. Steam can lag Metacritic by a few points.
Does War Thunder work on Steam Deck?
Valve rates War Thunder as verified on the Steam Deck, from its own testing. That means it works out of the box with no configuration.
How big is the War Thunder download?
70 GB on PC, from the storage requirement on its Steam listing. Console versions differ.
Who made War Thunder?
War Thunder was developed by Gaijin Entertainment and published by Gaijin Entertainment.
Is War Thunder worth it in 2026?
71% of 779,529 Steam reviews are positive (Mostly Positive), and it is free to play. That is the strongest signal we hold; "worth it" depends on the price you pay and what you want, so weigh the sentiment against the current price above.
What are the system requirements for War Thunder?
At minimum, War Thunder needs 4 GB RAM, a Dual-Core 2.2 GHz, 70 GB of storage, from its Steam listing. That is what it takes to launch and be playable, not to run at high settings. Check it against your own PC on the can-I-run page.
How long does it take to beat War Thunder?
about 814 hours for the main story, 1630.4 hours with the main extras, 4627.7 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.