ARK: Survival Evolved ▶ Trailer
ARK: Survival Evolved screenshot 1ARK: Survival Evolved screenshot 2
ActionAdventureIndieMassively MultiplayerRPGOpen World Survival CraftSurvivalMultiplayerOpen WorldDinosaurs

11,088 playing#94 on Steam by players#94 on Steam

Peak in the last 24 hours: 19,830

Peak in the last 7 days: 23,468

ARK: Survival Evolved Steam store

Game description

Stranded on the shores of a mysterious island, you must learn to survive. Use your cunning to kill or tame the primeval creatures roaming the land, and encounter other players to survive, dominate... and escape!

Basic info

DeveloperStudio Wildcard, Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, Virtual Basement LLC
PublisherStudio Wildcard, Snail Games USA
PlatformsWindows · macOS
Steam DeckVerified
Release dateAug 27, 2017
Price
  • Steam store −34% $14.99 $9.89 · Steam ↗
  • Lowest-price store $9.89 · Steam
  • Historical low $4.99 · 3-month low $14.99Other stores ↗

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit versions)
ProcessorIntel Core i5-2400/AMD FX-8320 or better
Memory8 GB
GraphicsNVIDIA GTX 670 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or better
Storage60 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 384 reviews from the past 1 year

75.7/ 100
Bottom 40%

Steam rating: Very Positive (83%)

Metacritic: 70 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 12, 2026)

Taming dinosaurs with friends is the draw of ARK: Survival Evolved, but performance drags it to 75.7 across 780,463 Steam reviews.

👍 Strengths

37 reviews say it is fun and engaging with friends. Content Volume ranks 142nd of 1351, and 16 praise how much content there is, with the most upvoted describing over a thousand hours of base building, taming and multiple maps. 16 praise the graphics, which the most upvoted calls beautiful. Story & World ranks 344th of 1096, and players enjoy an absurd mix of survival, dinosaurs, building, tribes and exploration.

👎 Where it falls short

Tech & Support ranks 1355th of 1399 and comes up in 47% of analyzed reviews. 76 reviews describe poor performance and optimization, and some also mention expensive DLC. 62 report freezes, some in menus and loading screens. 20 find it hard, some as beginners. Others say the developers abandoned it and shut down online servers, and some could not connect with friends. Multiplayer ranks 371st of 642.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“very poor optimization and expensive DLC” · 76 reviews
“fun to play with friends, interesting and engaging” · 37 reviews
“beautiful graphics and unique engaging gameplay” · 16 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 43% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +3.60 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “taming creatures key mechanic, survive and explore” · 15 reviews
Negative “technology jump breaks low-tech survival preference” · 1 review

Progression 16% · Difficulty 16% · Onboarding 11% · Strategy 6% · Controls & feel 5%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 16% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

World +3.49 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “game has absurd core proposition with survival, dinosaurs, building, tribes, exploration” · 11 reviews

Story 5% · Characters 0%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 24% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +3.04 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “over 1200 hours with base building, taming, and multiple maps” · 16 reviews
Negative “165GB base game size is excessive and unreasonable” · 6 reviews

Variety 9% · Replayability 3%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 14% of reviews · Bottom 20% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +1.52 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “beautiful graphics and unique engaging gameplay” · 16 reviews

Audio 2%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 35% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Playing together +1.95 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals
Positive “fun to play with friends, interesting and engaging” · 37 reviews

Community 6% · Servers & Connection 11%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 14% of reviews · Bottom 40% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing -0.23 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Negative “interesting content locked behind paywall, feels like constant money extraction” · 11 reviews
Positive “well worth $14, most DLC free, doubles playability” · 2 reviews

Anti-cheat 1% · Balance 4% · Matchmaking 1%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 47% of reviews · Bottom 5% of the games we've analyzed

Performance -0.92 · Frame rate, optimization, and loading times
Negative “very poor optimization and expensive DLC” · 76 reviews

Stability 28% · Developer support 18%

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

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🎲 Fans of this game often get the title Mysterious Guildmaster. Which one is yours?