War Thunder — Latest Updates & Patch Notes
War Thunder is currently the #11 most-played game on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 88K concurrent players — ▼ cooling off (was #10 last week).
Last official update Jul 22, 2026 (today) · 12 updates in the last 90 days · 12 tracked here.
- Steam rank
- #11 ▼
- Peak (24h)
- 88K
- Genre
- Action, Massively Multiplayer, Simulation
- Developer
- Gaijin Entertainment
- Released
- Aug 15, 2013
- Price
- Free to Play
- Metacritic
- 81
- Steam reviews
- 2K
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.
Latest updates & patch notes
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News
New Run of Nuclear Escalation!
We're excited to present a new iteration of the Nuclear Escalation mode! When: From July 22nd (13:00 GMT) to July 28 (13:00 GMT)Nuclear Escalation depicts a large-scale conflict involving nuclear weapons, putting you in command of front-line aviation armed with nuclear bombs…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Patch
Update 2.57.1.38
AircraftF/A-18E, F/A-18F (Britain) — the maximum number of AGM-154A1 JSOW bombs that can be carried simultaneously has been increased to 10. (Report). F/A-18C Late, F/A-18C MLU 2 (Sweden), AF/A-18A Late (Britain) — the maximum number of AGM-154A1 JSOW bombs that can be carried…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
News
Discounts for P. O. Sukhoi’s Birthday!
Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi was born on July 22nd 1895. In the early 1910s, while a student in Gomel, he witnessed a flight by the famous aviator Sergei Utochkin; he loved it so much that he decided to dedicate his life to aircraft design. During the 1920s and 1930s, he worked under…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Patch
Update 2.57.1.33
AircraftThe following new nuclear weaponry carriers have been added to Ground Battles with a session Battle Rating of 13.0 and higher. They carry not only the nuclear bomb itself, but a set of air-to-air missiles, 2 IR guided and 2 ARH guided. The following aircraft have been…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Event
Battle Pass Season 24: “Do It Yourself” and Its Warbond Shop!
Crews often have to operate in the field. When there’s no fully equipped hangar with tools and specialists nearby, resourcefulness and ingenuity come into play! We’re dedicating Battle Pass Season 24 to the makeshift mechanics and resourceful engineers ready for the boldest…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
News
Screenshot Competition – Live Fire!
Welcome to the 233rd War Thunder Steam Screenshot Competition! Thanks for all of your awesome screenshots! This week we are back to capturing the action. Your screenshot can compose of any vehicle and perspective, but should showcase the vehicle in action, firing its weapon. The…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
News
Work-In-Progress: CA-27
Check out this sneak peek of the Australian CA-27 jet fighter, which really is the Sabre at its best! Hey everyone! The Heavy Cavalry update has just released, yet we’re already working hard on content for the next major update. Today, we’re taking a peek behind the scenes at…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Event
Get the Scimitar Mk.2 in the Scimitar Strike Event!
The history of the CVR(T) family of combat reconnaissance vehicles dates back to the 1960s. By tradition, they were given names starting with the letter “S”: Scorpion, Striker, Spartan, Samaritan, Sultan, and Samson. The seventh vehicle in the series was the Scimitar, named…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Patch
Update 2.57.1.29
AircraftThe ability to link weapons to aiming points via the tactical map by right clicking, along with a corresponding hint to the right of the map, has been added. After opening a context menu on the aiming point, all weaponry available for linking is displayed. The number of…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Event
The WTCS Challenger League Major II Winner is “Team Warning”!
Last weekend marked the conclusion of the WTCS Challenger League Major II, the second major event of the War Thunder Championships Series Challenger League. In the end, Team Warning secured first place and strengthened their position in the standings with 139 points. Close…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
News
Decals and a Discount on the Vautour IIN for Bastille Day!
On July 14th 1789, the Bastille fortress-prison fell, becoming a pivotal event of the French Revolution. More than 90 years later, this date began to be celebrated as a national holiday. In the 20th century, a military parade on the Champs-Élysées was added to the festivities…
Read the full notes on Steam → -
Patch
Update 2.57.1.22
AircraftThe point of interest and aiming points set by the player now persist after respawning. Su-30MK2 AMV (USSR), Su-30MKK (China), J-11A, MiG-29N (Japan) — the designations for the RVV-AE missiles on the HUD and MFD have been added. B-25J (all variants) — a bug that caused…
Read the full notes on Steam →
Screenshots
About War Thunder
War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armoured vehicles, 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, fighting with millions of players from all over the world in an ever-evolving environment. In War Thunder, aircraft, attack helicopters, ground forces and naval ships collaborate in realistic competitive battles. You can choose from over 3,000 vehicles and an extensive variety of combat situations many of which are exclusive. You can find yourself blasting your pursuers from…
Game details
- System requirements (minimum)
- Minimum: OS: Windows 10 (64bit) Processor: Dual-Core 2.2 GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: DirectX 11 level video card: AMD Radeon 77XX / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660. The minimum supported resolution for the game is 720p. DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 70 GB available space VR Support: SteamVR. Keyboard or gamepad required
- Languages
- English * , German * , French * , Italian * , Spanish - Spain * , Simplified Chinese, Russian * , Japanese * , Polish * , Czech * , Turkish * , Portuguese - Portugal, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Hungarian, Ukrainian…
- Controller
- Full controller support
- DLC
- 35 available on Steam
- Official site
- warthunder.com/
Frequently asked questions
- Is War Thunder free to play?
- Yes — War Thunder is free to play on Steam.
- What is the latest War Thunder update?
- The most recent official update is "New Run of Nuclear Escalation!" (Jul 22, 2026), categorized as News. We're excited to present a new iteration of the Nuclear Escalation mode! When: From July 22nd (13:00 GMT) to July 28 (13:00 GMT)Nuclear Escalation depicts a large-scale conflict involving nuclear weapons, putting you in command of front-line aviation armed with nuclear bombs…
- How many people play War Thunder?
- War Thunder peaked at 88K concurrent players in the last 24 hours, ranking #11 on Steam's most-played chart (it was #10 the previous week).
- When was War Thunder released?
- War Thunder was released on Aug 15, 2013 by Gaijin Entertainment.
- What kind of game is War Thunder?
- War Thunder is a Action, Massively Multiplayer, Simulation, Free To Play game, featuring single-player, multi-player, mmo.
Live player counts and update notes are pulled from Steam's public data and refreshed daily (last refresh: Jul 22, 2026). Excerpts are from official announcements; follow the source links for full notes. War Thunder and all related assets are trademarks of their respective owners.