War Thunder (Originally known as War Thunder: World of Planes) is a 2013 free-to-play vehicular combat multiplayer video game produced by Gaijin Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Oculus, and Vive. It was first released in November 2012 as an open beta with a worldwide release in January 2013; it had its official release on December 21, 2016. A spinoff game called War Thunder Mobile (also known as War Thunder Edge) was released in 2023 for Android and iOS.
Developed as a "flying simulation game", it was previously named War Thunder: World of Planes, but due to its similarity with Wargaming's World of Warplanes, it was changed to its present name in 2012. Initially, Gaijin claimed after the game was announced that it was an April Fools joke before confirming its existence in June that same year.
War Thunder won several awards following its release, winning Best Simulation Game at the Gamescom 2013 Awards as well as winning Best Game, Best Developer, Best Technology and Best Sound at the KRI 2013 Awards. In 2019, War Thunder was among the most played games on Steam with over 25,000 concurrent players. As of November 1, 2022, War Thunder had over 70 million registered players on all platforms combined, out of which 160,000 play concurrently. In February 2024, War Thunder set a new record of over 250,000 concurrent players.
Gameplay
War Thunder is based around combined arms battles on air, land, and sea. Vehicles range from pre-World War I (ships only) to the modern day, as well as tanks that are not technically in service yet, with an emphasis on World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. Players can control aircraft, ground vehicles, and warships from nations with a set of technology trees attached to them. The game also incorporates other nations. These nations are included either as "sub-trees" (parts of the research trees of bigger nations being dedicated to a smaller nation) or premium vehicles, purchasable with real money or in-game currency. Players starts off at Rank 1 with vehicles mainly from the Interwar period and early World War II era and work their way up to Rank 8 vehicles which features fighting vehicles still in use by modern armies. Currently, there are no rules/barriers for bringing lower rank vehicles (eg. M22 Locust from Rank 1) to higher ranks such as Rank 8 and 9.
Vehicles are divided into three main categories: aviation, ground, and fleet, while game modes are divided between arcade, realistic, and simulator. Aviation is divided between regular aircraft and helicopters, fleet is divided between "Bluewater", ships from the size of destroyers to battlecruisers and battleships and "Coastal", smaller ships and boats such as motor torpedo boats, motor gunboats, submarine chasers, and frigates. A single-player mode that focuses on historical battles, and a co-op wave survival mode for battling AI ground vehicles and aircraft, are also available.
In War Thunder, the player takes control of a vehicle, depending on the type of battle. That player is in full control of their vehicle until it is destroyed by the enemy team. The objective of most battles is to accumulate points, either by destroying enemy vehicles or capturing strategic positions on the map.
Events Events in War Thunder provide custom missions, usually based on one of the three main game modes, but with alternative settings regarding allowed vehicles, mission specifics, etc. Examples are the recreation of historical battles by restricting available vehicles (e.g., Battle of Britain). Traditionally, the developers prepare unconventional events for April Fools' Day. These events are used to test planned game mechanics before their broader release to the player base.
Examples include "March to Victory", introducing playable mecha composed of tank parts; "The Pony Nation", introducing the world of My Little Pony, Equestria, as a sixth playable faction (2013); "Gaijilla", featuring a battle against a giant Godzilla-like snail (2014); and Atomic Thunder, featuring vehicles from the video game Atomic Heart (July 2023).
In August 2020, the game had a tank biathlon-style event featuring select Russian and Chinese tanks performing tasks on a tank range map, with the objective to finish in 1st place after navigating obstacles and destroying targets. The event was partnered with the Information Systems Department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Logos advertising the game also appeared during the event, notably painted on the side of the tanks during the real biathlon. The event was teased on August 17 with a YouTube video posted to the game's official YouTube Channel, as well as on the official website.
Mobile
War Thunder Mobile (formerly known as War Thunder Edge) is a mobile version of War Thunder produced by Gaijin Entertainment and publicly released on August 15, 2023.
The game consists of three modes: Ground, Air, and Naval, with vehicles ranging from the Second World War to contemporary vehicles. Similar to the main game, there is a tech tree system. Players are able to create a line-up in the Aviation and Ground modes, mixing different nations between different types of vehicles. As of October 2025, there is no way to mix the different game modes, but the player is able to spawn bombers and fighters depending on their score in the battle. War Thunder Mobile features ground vehicle trees for the United States, Soviet Union, Germany, China, and Japan, as well as some miscellaneous vehicles from Italy, Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom, along with a few vehicles from other countries; ships from the USA, UK, Germany, USSR, Japan, and few ships from other countries; and planes from the USA, Germany, USSR, and UK, along with a few planes from other countries.
Trophies
A gacha system to unlock vehicles for the 3 modes is updated per month with the updates. If a player missed the reward for former updates, another gacha to unlock former rewards runs for 7 days, after the end of the leaderboard. There is always a big trophy (containing premium versions of the two top-tier vehicles in the medium trophy, and used to contain a higher-rank platoon or vehicle), and a medium trophy (used to contain a lower- to mid-rank platoon, currently contains common rarity versions of the 2 top-tier vehicles). Other rewards are obtainable as well through the gacha system in the trophies, including supplies, in-game currency, and more "warbonds," which are used to open the medium and big trophies.
Updates War Thunder Mobile began as an Open Beta test on 27 March 2023. The first major update for the beta was the called "Symphony of Fire", adding a new map, new vehicles and options to customize the user interface.
The final update of the Beta test was the "Warzone Alliance," adding the option to play in a squad with your friends and a crew system that was easy to understand, as well as more vehicles being added to Ground and Naval.
On August 15, 2023, the game was launched globally, and players could receive special vehicles in the first week of playing, those being a French M4A4 medium tank and the USS Nicholas .
During the following years after the game's release, most of the updates only added new vehicles and customization items, with new maps being rarely added into the game. However, the "Stalingrad Map" was added to the game for the Christmas Celebration and New Year Event.
Seasons War Thunder Mobile has gone through many different "seasons," which are events/updates that last for 30 days and bring combinations of new missions, vehicles, maps, aesthetics, user interface changes, game modes, and rewards. There have always been at least two new vehicles for each game mode (in prior years there were 2 different platoons of 4 vehicles for the ground mode, but this has changed after the "Tanks 2.0" update), and new missions and rewards.
There may be "mini-seasons" within the main 30-day seasons that contain different rewards, missions, and often new vehicles along with recurring vehicles from the previous run of the mini-season. These mini-seasons are often around holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Lunar New Year, and Valentine's Day, and may bring a holiday-themed event game mode. There may be multiple mini-seasons within the main season.
History
Early development and closed beta The development of the game, then under the name World of Planes, began in 2009. Gaijin Entertainment used its experience with its previous combat flight simulator games, such as IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, Apache: Air Assault, and Birds of Steel, in the development. The title was changed to War Thunder during the closed beta due to confusion with competitor World of Warplanes.
Open beta and release
Open beta testing started on November 1, 2012 (for users from the Russian Federation; the global beta launched January 28, 2013) for Windows PC with about 200 aircraft and 600,000 players. On May 15, 2014, at 6 million registered players, the first ground forces for Germany and the Soviet Union were introduced. Later added were the American, British, and Japanese ground forces.
In 2017, Italy was added as a playable faction. At Gamescom 2018, the planned addition of helicopters into the game was announced, and by late 2018, helicopters were fully implemented.
In 2022, Tencent announced that the Chinese version of the game published by Tencent would be discontinued on October 17.
Controversies Accusations of supporting an anti-Ukrainian YouTube channel In January 2021, after the logos of War Thunder were seen in a video by pro-separatist YouTube channel "High Caliber Mayhem", Gaijin was accused of indirectly financing Russian-backed separatist forces in the war in Donbas. High Caliber Mayhem has denied any links to the separatist forces and published an explanation claiming that all the money from all advertisements on that channel were spent on humanitarian aid for civilians. The video showing the War Thunder advertisement was removed from High Caliber Mayhem's YouTube channel.
In response to the controversy, Gaijin stated "We do not provide political support to anyone anywhere. We know nothing about politics and prefer to stay out of it. Our agency that ordered an ad in the video in question took it down when they realized they might drag us into a political discussion."
Review bombing Following an in-game economic change in May 2023 which drastically reduced rewards given for battle actions and an increase in post-battle costs, a large amount of War Thunder players began revolting against the developers by review bombing the game on multiple platforms, such as Steam and Google. In response, Gaijin has since reverted the planned economic change, posted statements regarding the issue and player progression, announced a revision of the economy for mid-summer 2023 and issued an apology for the initial controversial changes.
Military training tool In 2020, Task & Purpose reported that the US 1st Cavalry Division tankers were using War Thunder for training during COVID-19 quarantine. After looking at several games including World of Tanks, the soldiers found that War Thunder best met their needs. In 2021, a video of the Republic of Korea's 3rd Armored Brigade using War Thunder for the Command & Control training session was made public.
In January 2024, a Ukrainian M2 Bradley IFV gunner of the 47th Brigade, referred to only as Serhiy, disabled a Russian T-90M main battle tank by shooting specific areas of the tank's armor, claiming that video games taught him exactly where to shoot. According to media, War Thunder is the only game that matches this description. Task & Purpose said: "People know War Thunder for leaking classified documents, but now it might actually be known as the game that has the first confirmed kill."