Is War Thunder worth playing in 2024?

Despite being a free-to-play game, MMO military War Thunder has got many fans of the genre wondering whether it’s worth playing, but there might be a few valid reasons behind such uncertainty. 

First released in open beta in 2012, War Thunder spent quite some time in testing before its official launch in 2016 across all major platforms, including PC and consoles. If you’re not aware, the game has players hopping into vehicles, inspired by the history and modern world, for an immersive MMO vehicular combat experience. It supports full-fledged multiplayer features, allowing players to team up across platforms. While it can be downloaded for free, players can invest in various in-game upgrades and cosmetics for their vehicles and profiles. 

If the description above isn’t enough to persuade you, you’re likely looking for a clearer verdict, so here’s whether War Thunder is worth playing. 

Is War Thunder worth it in 2024?

Simply put, the answer depends on what you’re open to. If you’re fine with microtransactions and can deal with some annoying performance issues and cheaters, War Thunder is definitely worth your time in 2024 and beyond. 

Its initial release might have been better a decade back, but War Thunder reached its peak popularity in 2023, with an all-time peak of 114,806 players in November—according to Steam Charts. The year recorded incredible growth for the game, flaunting an average of around 64,000 daily online players. 

While War Thunder is undoubtedly an interesting game with its unique vehicular combat mechanics and competitive multiplayer, players haven’t been happy with Gazin Entertainment’s blatant microtransaction system making the experience pay-to-win. Of course, you can always choose to grind your way to boost your placement, but that will involve you getting stomped on by those who spend money on upgrading their fleet. Not everyone can sit through such an experience without losing their mind, so they end up emptying their pockets anyway. 

Besides the unfavorable microtransaction experience, War Thunder doesn’t really set a good example when it comes to performance and optimization. The community has been regularly voicing their annoyance over the game’s glaring server hiccups, packet loss issues, stuttering, frame drops, and whatnot. In addition, cheating is a rampant issue in the game, and from what can be made of community posts, Gazin hasn’t been able to curb it as well as it should.

When it comes to performance issues, you can get over them by optimizing the in-game and PC settings accordingly. Gazin also deploys regular updates to War Thunder, making its optimization and cheating situation better as days pass.

If you’re willing to ignore the caveats, it’s needless to say that War Thunder’s unique experience is worth your time (and money) in 2024.