Ark: Survival Evolved (also known as ARK) is a 2017 action-adventure survival video game created by Studio Wildcard. In the game, players are stranded on different maps filled with dinosaurs, fantasy creatures, prehistoric animals, natural dangers, and other players who may be hostile.
Players can view the game from a third-person or first-person perspective. The open world can be explored by walking or riding prehistoric animals. Players use guns and handmade weapons to protect themselves from enemies and build shelters on the ground or on some creatures. The game offers both single-player and multiplayer modes. In multiplayer, players can join groups called tribes on a server. The number of tribe members depends on the server. In this mode, tamed dinosaurs and buildings are usually shared among tribe members. There is a PvE mode where players can team up against non-player characters without fighting each other unless a special war event is agreed upon by both sides.
Development began in October 2014. The game was first released on PC in 2015 as an early access title, meaning it was released before it was finished. The development team studied animal appearances but made creative changes for gameplay. Instinct Games, Effecto Studios, and Virtual Basement helped with the game’s creation. The game officially launched in August 2017 for Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Versions for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch were released in 2018. A version for Stadia came out in 2021, and a second Nintendo Switch version was released in 2022.
Ark: Survival Evolved received mixed reviews. Some players criticized its difficulty, repetitive gameplay, and large amount of content. The first Nintendo Switch version had problems with graphics and performance. Many expansions have been added as downloadable content.
Ark: Survival Evolved led to two spin-off games made with Snail Games: a virtual reality game called Ark Park and a sandbox survival game called PixArk. A sequel, Ark 2, was announced in December 2020. In 2023, a remastered version called Ark: Survival Ascended was released for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in early access.
Gameplay
Ark: Survival Evolved is an action-adventure survival game set in an open world with a changing day and night cycle. Players can view the game from a third-person or first-person perspective. To survive, players must build a base with fire and weapons. Additional tasks, such as taming and feeding dinosaurs, require gathering more resources. The game world, called the "Ark," is about 48 kilometers (19 square miles) in size. Of this, 36 kilometers (14 square miles) are land, and 12 kilometers (4.6 square miles) are ocean.
There are currently 194 creatures in the Ark world. Early versions of the game featured real dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Later, mythical creatures like wyverns, griffins, golems, and phoenixes were added. With game expansions, new original creatures, such as Karkinos and Velonasaur, and robotic creatures like Enforcer and Scout, were introduced.
A key part of the game is taming creatures. Most creatures can be tamed, but some, like Meganeura, Trilobites, and Titanomyrma, cannot. Taming methods vary. Many creatures are "knock out" tamed, meaning players must knock them unconscious using tranquilizers or blunt weapons, such as clubs. Players often need to keep the creature sedated during the process. Some creatures take longer to tame and require more sedatives. Once knocked out, players must feed the creature its preferred food, such as berries for herbivores or meat for carnivores. Some creatures, like Moschops, can be tamed by simply approaching and offering food. Others, like Carcharodontosaurus, Oasisaur, and Megaraptor, require mini-games that do not involve sedation or feeding. Once tamed, creatures follow the player's commands. Many can be used for transportation, combat, carrying items, or issuing offensive and defensive commands. Larger creatures, such as Brontosaurus or Mosasaurus, can have building platforms placed on their backs, creating mobile bases. The game also includes non-dinosaur animals, such as dodos, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and ichthyosaurs. Every creature lives in its own ecosystem with defined predator relationships. Fictional creatures like Griffins, Wyverns, and Unicorns also appear on the map.
Players must monitor several meters, such as health, stamina, oxygen, hunger, thirst, and "weight" (how much they can carry). If players take damage, their health meter regenerates slowly over time or faster if they consume food or use items that restore health. Players gain experience by harvesting materials, crafting, killing creatures, or finding explorer notes. Once enough experience is earned, players gain level points to improve stats, including max health, stamina, oxygen, food, water, carry weight, melee damage, movement speed, and crafting skill. As of April 2023, the maximum player level is 105. Additional levels can be earned by defeating end-game bosses, leveling up a chibi (a cosmetic pet), collecting explorer notes, or obtaining runes in the Fjordur map. Tamed creatures can also gain experience and level points. Creatures spawn in the game at levels from 1 to 150 and can gain up to 75 more levels through experience. Some dinosaurs, like Tek dinosaurs, spawn at level 180. Specific creatures, such as Rock Drake or Wyvern variants, can spawn at level 190 but must be hatched from eggs instead of tamed in the wild.
Players can build structures by gathering resources, such as floors, doors, and windows, which are crafted using materials found in the world. Structures can be built from different material tiers, with stronger tiers offering better protection but requiring more resources. Players start with thatch structures, then progress to wood, stone, metal, and finally tek, a futuristic material. Glass structures can create a greenhouse effect for plants, while adobe structures block outside heat to maintain ideal indoor temperatures. Players can also craft weapons and attach accessories, such as scopes or flashlights, to their weapons.
Development
The development of Ark: Survival Evolved began in October 2014. Studio Wildcard, a team based in Seattle, partnered with Instinct Games, a company from Egypt, to help create the game. Later, Effecto Studios and Virtual Basement also contributed to the development. To learn about the game’s prehistoric creatures, the team read books and online articles and asked friends who studied biology for help. While creating the game’s creatures and world, the team used creative choices for gameplay, even though the creatures differ from their real-life versions. Many team members were inspired by movies like Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time.
The game includes features that appeal to all players, not just those who enjoy survival games. For example, players can explore the island and fight large bosses as a reward for discovering secrets. The team also added a final goal for players, as they believed many survival games lacked one. Creative director Jesse Rapczak said the team wanted to create a world that is both a place to explore and a goal to achieve.
The game uses Unreal Engine 4 and includes "tens of thousands" of AI-controlled creatures, according to Rapczak. It supports virtual reality (VR) gameplay, and Rapczak, who has used VR technology for nearly three years, said the game was designed with VR in mind from the start.
Ark: Survival Evolved was first released through Steam Early Access for Windows on June 2, 2015, just before the movie Jurassic World came out. The team planned this release to take advantage of the popularity of dinosaurs. Later, the game was released for Linux and OS X on July 1, 2015, and for Xbox One through the Xbox Game Preview Program on December 16, 2015. Initially, Sony did not allow a PlayStation 4 version because the console lacked an early access program, but a PS4 version was released on December 6, 2016. The final version of the game launched on August 29, 2017, for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It was originally planned for June 2016 but was delayed. The game launched with support for Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, and the Xbox One version was released through the ID@Xbox program. The standard version was released alongside an "Explorer's Edition," which included a season pass with three expansions, and a "Collector's Edition," which included additional items like a necklace, map, and soundtrack. Mobile versions for Android and iOS were released on June 14, 2018, and a Nintendo Switch version came out on November 30, 2018. A version for Google Stadia was announced in October 2020 and released on September 1, 2021. An enhanced version for Xbox Series X and Series S was later released with improved details and resolution. A new version called Ark: Ultimate Survivor Edition was released for Nintendo Switch on November 1, 2022, after the original Switch version received poor reviews. Existing owners of the Switch version could upgrade for free.
On April 1, 2023, Studio Wildcard announced a remastered version called Survival Ascended, originally planned for August 2023. This release was delayed until October 2023. At the same time, the official servers for Ark: Survival Evolved were scheduled to shut down, but this was also delayed until September 30, 2023. Unlike earlier plans, the remastered version would not be free for existing players. Survival Ascended was released in early access for Windows on October 25, 2023, for Xbox Series X/S on November 21, 2023, and for PlayStation 5 on November 30, 2023.
On March 16, 2016, a game mode called Survival of the Fittest was released as a free standalone game with no microtransactions. It was scheduled to launch fully in mid-2016 but was later merged back into the main game. The team did not want to charge players for the mode and wanted to let modders use the game’s development tools to create mods. The mode had esports tournaments with a prize pool of $50,000. Players who played the mode before it was merged could continue using it for free, while new players had to purchase the main game to access it.
On March 25, 2019, a new game mode called Classic PVP was announced. It was released for PC on April 2, 2019. This mode aims to return to older gameplay styles by limiting features like tribe alliances and evolution events. A remastered version of Survival of the Fittest was released for PC in late 2022 and later for consoles in February 2023. It was also added to Xbox and PC in January 2023.
On September 1, 2016, Studio Wildcard released a paid DLC called Scorched Earth. This expansion added a desert map, new desert-themed items, and fictional creatures like the Wyvern and Rock Elemental. Some creatures, like the Jug Bug, cannot be tamed. The DLC also introduced three unique weather effects: sandstorms, superheat, and electrical storms. The release of paid DLC while the game was still in early access caused negative reactions from players, leading to many negative reviews on Steam.
On December 12, 2017, a paid DLC called Aberration was released. It added an underground/alien-themed map and 15 new creatures, including the Rock Drake, which can become invisible, and the Nameless, which are difficult to kill but can be weakened by a "Charge Lantern" or "Light Pets." New items like climbing hooks and glider suits were also added. Aberration is the largest map in the game and allows players to continue the story of Ark and learn more about the Ark worlds.
On November 6, 2018, the third paid DLC expansion, Extinction, was released.
Reception
Ark: Survival Evolved received "mixed or average" reviews for the Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions, while the Switch version received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.
TJ Hafer's 7.7/10 review on IGN stated that "When I'm having a good time in Ark, I'm having a really good time. The problem is that those moments are usually only a small part of the game, while most of it involves repetitive tasks like gathering materials and building things—especially at the later stages. Repeating so much work after failing to defeat a boss feels too harsh, and some dinosaurs are so poorly designed that they reduce the excitement and danger of exploring the game's environments. Even with these issues, I still want to keep playing after spending 60 hours on the game. Few survival games have kept my attention for that long."
GameSpot gave the game a 6/10, saying: "The game's strong sense of place and mood is canceled out by how extremely difficult everything is, how much time it takes to experience even a small part of the game, and how often unexpected deaths destroy everything you've built." Ian Birnbaum of PC Gamer gave the game a score of 72/100, stating it to be "overly complicated and filled with repetitive tasks, but it has so many features that a better game is hidden inside it."
The Switch version was criticized for being significantly reduced in quality to work properly on the console. Reviewers pointed out issues like lower quality graphics and slower performance, simpler 3D models, unclear textures, frequent crashes, and long loading times. John Linneman of Eurogamer compared the Switch version to "a blurry, low-quality version of a detailed painting." However, a redesigned version of the game for the Switch, created by Grove Street Games and released in 2022, was praised by Linneman as "one of the biggest improvements we've ever seen, turning the game from a very hard-to-play and broken version into one of the best Unreal Engine 4 games on Nintendo Switch."
Within a month of its early access release on Steam, Ark had sold over one million copies. By August 2016, the game had sold more than 5.5 million copies across Windows and Xbox One, with about 1.5 million of those from the Xbox One platform.
Co-founder Jesse Rapczak explained that the release of the Genesis expansions was partly because of the unexpected popularity of the Extinction expansion and the season pass, and partly because he believed the game's story could be expanded further.
By June 2022, Ark: Survival Evolved had 76.5 million downloads or installs across PC and consoles, including 38.4 million from free promotions. In the fourth quarter of 2023, 745,000 units were sold, followed by 2.3 million more in 2024.
Sequel and spin-offs
In March 2018, two spin-off games were released. Snail Games' Peacock Studio created Ark Park, a virtual reality game, and Snail Games USA developed PixARK, a sandbox survival game.
In November 2021, an educational spin-off titled Ark: Dinosaur Discovery, developed by Grove Street Games, was released for the Nintendo Switch.
Ark: Survival Ascended is an upgraded remaster of the original game using Unreal Engine 5. Originally planned for release in August 2023, the game was delayed to October 2023.
A sequel, Ark 2, was announced at The Game Awards 2020. The game features actors Vin Diesel and Auliʻi Cravalho. Co-developed with Grove Street Games, it was initially planned for a 2023 launch but was rescheduled for early access on Windows and Xbox Series X/S in late 2024. However, no updates were made after that date. Ark 2 will use Unreal Engine 5 instead of Unreal Engine 4 from the original game and include a soulslike combat system. As of June 2025, Studio Wildcard expects Ark 2 to enter early access no earlier than 2027.
Animated series
An animated series based on the game was announced during The Game Awards 2020. The series stars Madeleine Madden, Michelle Yeoh, Gerard Butler, Jeffrey Wright, David Tennant, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, Ragga Ragnars, Elliot Page, Karl Urban, Malcolm McDowell, Deborah Mailman, Juliet Mills, Alan Tudyk, Ron Yuan, Russell Crowe, and Vin Diesel. The series began airing on Paramount+ on March 21, 2024.