ARK: Survival Ascended

Open-world survival sandbox about taming dinosaurs and building bases

Studio Wildcard, Grove Street Games, Instinct Games · Published by Studio Wildcard, Snail Games USA · Released Oct 25, 2023 · Early Access

Action Adventure Indie Massively Multiplayer RPG Early Access

Reviews: Mixed; 60% of 118K
Recent reviews: Mixed; 58% of 2,268 in 30 days
Playing now: 15K; right now
Steam Deck: Verified
Last update: 3 weeks ago; Aug 27, 2026

What is ARK: Survival Ascended?

An open-world survival sandbox set on a mysterious island populated by dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. You gather resources, craft equipment, build bases, manage survival needs, and tame, breed, ride, or fight creatures alone or with other players.

For you if...

+you enjoy open-world crafting, base building, and exploration
+you want to tame, breed, and ride dinosaurs
+you prefer solo, cooperative, or competitive survival

Not for you if...

−you dislike resource gathering and survival stat management
−you want a linear, story-led adventure

What players say

60% of 117,960 reviews are positive · 58% of 2,268 in the last 30 days

Players praise the base building, dinosaur taming, exploration, visual overhaul, and solo or PvE play with friends. Common complaints include poor optimization, crashes and persistent bugs, large storage and patching demands, and paid DLC and premium-mod monetization; PvP players also report cheating and pay-to-win content.

Screenshots and trailer

ARK: Survival Ascended system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Storage: 180 GB available space
DirectX: Version 12
Notes: SSD Required

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Full controller support
Platforms: Windows
Achievements: 32
Steam features: Family Sharing

Steam Deck: Verified

All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
Shows Steam Deck controller icons
In-game text is legible on Steam Deck
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
External controllers are not supported for the primary player

Multiplayer and co-op

Languages

Full audio: English. Text only: French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Danish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Portuguese - Portugal, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Traditional Chinese, Turkish.