The issue isn’t whether the game is “fun”—it’s about the sheer amount of time required to make meaningful progress. A game being enjoyable doesn’t justify an unreasonable grind. Many players enjoy War Thunder’s gameplay but find the progression system needlessly slow, which is why this discussion keeps coming up.
Saying “it’s free, the devs need to make money” doesn’t justify excessive grind either. Free-to-play games need monetization, but there’s a balance between fair progression and pushing players toward spending money out of frustration. War Thunder’s model relies heavily on long grind times to encourage premium purchases, but the amount of time required without paying is objectively excessive compared to similar games.
Your argument about match diversity and queue times also doesn’t hold up. Many players already skip lower BRs by buying premium vehicles, and an RP bank wouldn’t stop people from playing lower tiers—it would simply make progression feel less like a chore. The current system already has low-tier population issues, and it’s not because players have too much RP—it’s because the early-game experience is repetitive and tedious.
Finally, dismissing concerns with “If you don’t like it, play differently” ignores the core issue. War Thunder is a vehicle progression game. If progressing to new vehicles is so difficult that players feel like they’re working a second job, that’s a design flaw—not a player issue.
In November 2022, War Thunder had 70 million registered players, yet at its peak, only 160,000 players were online. That means just 0.23% of all registered players were actively playing at the highest point.
While it’s true that the game is free to download, leading many people to try it for an hour or less, this actually highlights a bigger issue. If the vast majority of players quit almost immediately, it suggests that War Thunder fails to retain new players—likely due to its steep learning curve, slow progression, or frustrating mechanics. A healthy game should have a higher retention rate, not just a massive number of abandoned accounts.
Additionally, Steam covers the bandwidth costs for downloads, meaning Gaijin doesn’t have to pay for people trying the game and quitting. This makes the argument that “most players don’t pay, so the grind is necessary” even weaker. Since Gaijin isn’t losing money when people download and leave, the real issue is that their monetization strategy is pushing away potential long-term players instead of encouraging them to stay and spend.