ARK: Survival Ascended ▶ Trailer
ARK: Survival Ascended screenshot 1ARK: Survival Ascended screenshot 2
ActionAdventureIndieMassively MultiplayerRPGSurvivalOpen WorldMultiplayerDinosaursBase Building

25,156 playing#72 on Steam by players#72 on Steam

Peak in the last 24 hours: 26,675

Peak in the last 7 days: 32,949

ARK: Survival Ascended Early Access Steam store

Game description

ARK is reimagined from the ground-up into the next-generation of video game technology with Unreal Engine 5! Form a tribe, tame & breed hundreds of unique dinosaurs and primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight your way to the top of the food-chain. Your new world awaits!

Basic info

DeveloperStudio Wildcard, Grove Street Games, Instinct Games
PublisherStudio Wildcard, Snail Games USA
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateOct 25, 2023
Price
  • Steam store −75% $44.99 $11.24 · Steam ↗
  • Lowest-price store $11.24 · Steam
  • Historical low $11.24 · 3-month low $11.24Other stores ↗

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 10/11 with updates
ProcessorAMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
Memory16 GB
GraphicsAMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080
Storage180 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 401 reviews from the past 1 year

55.5/ 100
Bottom 5%

Steam rating: Mixed (60%)

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 12, 2026)

Poor optimization outweighs everything else in reviews of ARK: Survival Ascended; 148 reviews call its performance terrible, and it scores 55.5.

👍 Strengths

Players still love the idea. 55 reviews love the concept, some with thousands of hours played. 44 praise the improved visuals, the most upvoted citing a clear leap in lighting, water and models, and 12 describe great memories with friends. Content Volume ranks 180th of 1351, with players welcoming new creatures and mods, and a few say it runs smoothly on high end graphics cards with frame generation.

👎 Where it falls short

Tech & Support ranks 1392nd of 1399, and comes up in 78% of analyzed reviews. 64 reviews describe constant crashes and lost characters. Pricing & Fairness ranks 1294th of 1399, and 70 criticize paid DLC on top of the base game, the most upvoted calling it a predatory paywall. Others distrust the developer's history, and some describe broken servers and unresponsive support. Multiplayer ranks 511th of 642.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“most poorly optimized game ever, terrible performance” · 148 reviews
“predatory paywall system requiring $60+ for DLC content on top of base game” · 70 reviews
“concept is amazing, 5k hours played shows engagement” · 55 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 28% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +2.72 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “easily pick up and move structures, more creature behaviors and taming options” · 3 reviews

Progression 8% · Difficulty 2% · Onboarding 6% · Strategy 2% · Controls & feel 8%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 10% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

World +2.75 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “the game is a work of art” · 4 reviews

Story 1% · Characters 0%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 16% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +2.66 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “new creatures and mods add fresh content” · 10 reviews
Negative “games take up 300-400GB, ridiculous file size not worth the space” · 1 review

Variety 4% · Replayability 0%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 31% of reviews · Bottom 40% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +2.47 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “visuals remade with quality leap in lighting, water, and models” · 44 reviews
Negative “graphics worse than ARK 1 and Roblox” · 5 reviews

Audio 3%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 25% of reviews · Bottom 30% of the games we've analyzed

Community -2.75 · Who you play with — how many, and how friendly
Negative “griefers bulldoze everything with giga when bored” · 2 reviews

Playing together 13% · Servers & Connection 8%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 36% of reviews · Bottom 10% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing -1.05 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Negative “predatory paywall system requiring $60+ for DLC content on top of base game” · 70 reviews

Anti-cheat 4% · Balance 9% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 78% of reviews · Bottom 1% of the games we've analyzed

Performance -1.76 · Frame rate, optimization, and loading times
Negative “most poorly optimized game ever, terrible performance” · 148 reviews

Stability 40% · Developer support 50%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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