Air
Fly a century of aircraft
Biplanes, WW2 fighters, then jets like the F‑14D.
Fly It.
Drive It.
Sink It.
Free on PC and Mac. 3,000+ real vehicles. Runs on modest PCs.
Players agree “Mostly Positive” on Steam (72% of 329,000+ English reviews) and 81 on Metacritic. Players point to the variety of vehicles and shells, the maps and the graphics — and warn that it’s grindy, but fun.
See it in motion
Official screenshots from the PC version.
What hooks you
Three reasons players stay past the first evening.
Ground
Command real tanks
From the first tanks to modern MBTs — and long-range critical hits.
Sea
Take the fleet to sea
Patrol boats, destroyers and battleships in naval battles.
Pick your nation
Ten nations, each with its own tech tree of planes, tanks, helicopters and ships. Six of them, with what Sky Odyssey added to each:
USA
Sky Odyssey added the F‑14D and F‑102A jets and the destroyer USS Mahan.
Germany
New in Sky Odyssey: the H145M helicopter and the EMBT tank, shared with France.
USSR
Sky Odyssey brought the MiG‑35 jet fighter.
Great Britain
Now with India’s Arjun Mk 1 tank, the Wildcat helicopter and HMS Lion.
France
Shares the new EMBT tank with Germany since Sky Odyssey.
Israel
Greek aircraft and the Leopard 2HEL tank joined its tree in Sky Odyssey.
Your first evening in War Thunder
You start with a short tutorial, pick a nation and take its first planes or tanks into an online battle. Steam players admit the early tech tree takes some getting used to — then the controls click, and landing a critical hit from far away is, as one puts it, “the best feeling”. Every match earns research toward the next vehicle — and, another player adds, it is “very fun with friends”.
How to download War Thunder on PC
- Press “Play free now” at the top of this page. The free Windows or Mac download opens in a new tab.
- Run the installer. It downloads the game files — about 70 GB — so keep that much free space on your drive.
- Launch War Thunder once the install finishes. It is free to play from the start.
Can my PC run War Thunder?
Rig Check–
Your PC is ready.
Play free nowEstimate based on public GPU benchmarks and the official requirements; RAM (4 GB) and 70 GB of free space matter too.
On a Mac? Official minimum: macOS Catalina or later, Core i5 2.2 GHz, 6 GB RAM, Intel Iris Pro 5200 or an equivalent Metal GPU, 70 GB free.
Free? Pay-to-win? Quick answers
- Is it really free?
- Yes. The shop sells premium vehicles, a premium account that speeds up research, and a seasonal battle pass. You log in with a free War Thunder account the first time you launch it.
- Pay-to-win?
- More pay-to-progress-faster than pay-to-win. Premium vehicles and the premium account speed up research; Steam players call the game grindy, and spending shortens that grind.
- Which modes are there?
- Air, ground and naval battles, in game modes that run from Arcade to Simulator.
- Does it run on Mac?
- Yes. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and you share servers with PlayStation and Xbox players.
- Can my PC run it?
- Minimum: GTX 660, 4 GB RAM, 70 GB of storage, Windows 10 64-bit. Mac: macOS Catalina, Core i5, 6 GB RAM. Check your GPU above.
- Who makes it?
- Gaijin Entertainment. On Steam since 2013; the latest major update, Sky Odyssey, arrived on September 16, 2026.
Ready for your first battle?
Play free nowMore free PC games
Not for you if you want a story-driven single-player game, dislike long progression grinds, or are short on disk space (70 GB).
Partner link: we may earn a commission. Sources: Steam store page (description, PC and Mac requirements, user reviews and player comments, Metacritic score), official War Thunder news “Meet the Sky Odyssey major update” (September 16, 2026).