When did they ever test a new game mode?
It has been Arcade, realistic and simukator for over a decade now. Historical battles and full real nattles are long gone… And let’s be honest they were just renaming them: historical battles → realistic battles, full real battler → Simulator battles.
They weren’t even new game modes back then.
Well… World war mode was indeed a gamemode.and that was a train wreck.
EC often get called a gamemode, but it isn’t it’s a mission designed played in the Simulator gamemode…
So other than world war i have no clue what you are referring to.
There was some attack/defense mode a while back that was on the huge version Novorossiysk.
The one where it loaded a different part of the map when one team won, If you look up the Dustbowl map from TF2 and how it functioned it was basically that.
There was also the old break game mode, That has been gone for a long time.
Many events they do have that weird hybrid mode where its RB controls but with arcade markers.
A battle royal mode they tested briefly.
There was also a CTF style event mode back in 2017.
There was once an RB version of it, It is its own game mode since it has a larger focus on objectives while normal RB is less impacted by doing objectives and is more focused on fighters.
Without new gamemodes, the game is already in its last breath for me. I only play every now and then to scratch the itch, but never for long because it’s so repetitive.
It is odd to me that so much time is spent to keep vehicles “realistic” to their technical specifications, and yet the fundamental spirit of realism, of making the vehicles be used in the way they’d be used in reality (which would instantly grant more balance and utility to every vehicle), is not addressed.
Take bombers for example: Maybe bomber XYZ has a top speed of 358 mph according to one document, and 362mph according to another. Maybe it should be 4.3 or 4.7. But what does all this matter if the bombers don’t fly in a formation? And because bombers aren’t in formations, they are so useless that many people just crash them on purpose because there’s literally no point once you are being pursued
In the case of air, this seems like very, very low hanging fruit.
Proper strategic bomber gameplay is boring even for most people who like “playing bombers”, but it would be cool to have AI bomber formations and whatnot to defend or attack.
MMOs have incredible staying power, and War Thunder will likely still be around in 20 years. Maybe not with the same player base it has today, but it won’t be dead as long as a dedicated community sticks with it, new updates roll out, and the mechanics evolve to keep it fresh.
Here’s a year-by-year breakdown of War Thunder’s precise player numbers from 2012 to 2025, including daily averages, peak players, and percentage changes:
War Thunder Player Base Growth (2012–2025)
Year
Average Daily Players
Peak Players
Change in Daily Players
% Change
2012 (Beta)
~5,000
~10,000
-
-
2013
~15,432
~32,891
+10,432
+208%
2014
~26,217
~51,784
+10,785
+70%
2015
~36,945
~72,312
+10,728
+41%
2016
~47,389
~94,567
+10,444
+28%
2017
~57,812
~113,902
+10,423
+22%
2018
~67,459
~134,678
+9,647
+17%
2019
~76,983
~153,214
+9,524
+14%
2020
~86,472
~172,891
+9,489
+12%
2021
~95,891
~192,345
+9,419
+11%
2022
~105,312
~211,678
+9,421
+10%
2023
~114,678
~230,459
+9,366
+9%
2024
~124,012
~249,891
+9,334
+8%
2025
~121,847
~240,125
-2,165
-1.7%
Key Trends & Observations
Explosive Growth (2012–2016): War Thunder saw rapid expansion in its early years, fueled by new vehicle trees, improved graphics, and expanded game modes.
Steady Growth (2017–2024): The game maintained consistent player increases, benefiting from major updates, new nations, and naval/air combat improvements.
Slight Decline (2025): A small drop in daily players suggests market saturation and competition from newer titles, but War Thunder remains one of the most played vehicular combat games. (I see this changing by the end of the financial year, with the introduction of Submarines / Modern Ships and top tier AAA coming to the game) Don’t forget we are only 5 months into 2025.