War Thunder
War Thunder is a vehicle game with no infantry in it. You fly, drive or sail, across ground, air and naval forces that stretch from pre-1914 warships to modern jets. It is developed and published by Gaijin Entertainment.
Every number below carries the date we checked it and is traced to a named source on the sources page. The things we could not establish are listed at the foot of the page rather than guessed at.
Match size and squads
Sixteen human players per side is the standard full match across the main battle modes. Everyone in that match is a person; unlike Enlisted, there are no AI squads padding the count.
A squad is up to four players, you included. Squadron events allow eight, but that is a separate bracket and not something you meet in ordinary matchmaking.
One honest wrinkle: in May 2023 Gaijin announced that battles on large maps in ground Realistic Battles at Battle Rating 9.3 and above would hold more players on average, following a similar change in air Realistic Battles. It did not publish the new number, and we have not found one since. So take 16 v 16 as the standard case and assume the top of the ground tree can run larger by an amount nobody outside Gaijin has stated.
How many vehicles, and from where
Roughly 2,500 vehicles across 10 playable nations. Vehicles from other countries appear as sub-trees folded into those ten rather than as nations of their own.
Much larger figures circulate — 8,000 vehicles and 30-odd nations are the usual ones. We found no source for either, and both are around triple what we could verify. Note also that the true number moves with every update, so treat 2,500 as an order of magnitude rather than a census.
What is playable
Ground: light, medium and heavy tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns, self-propelled anti-aircraft. Air: fighters, bombers, attack aircraft, jets and helicopters. Naval: motor boats, destroyers, cruisers and battleships.
There is no infantry and there are no submarines. Third-party guides occasionally list a class called “multi-role tanks”, or “MTGs”; no such class exists in the game.
Arcade, Realistic, Simulator
The same vehicles, three levels of assistance.
| Mode | What changes |
|---|---|
| Arcade | The most assistance and the most forgiving damage model. Aiming aids and visible markers are present. The usual starting point. |
| Realistic | Much of the assistance is removed and damage is modelled more strictly. The mode most competitive play happens in. |
| Simulator | Nearly all assistance removed, including the external view in aircraft. The steepest of the three by a wide margin. |
Alongside the multiplayer modes there are single-player historical battles and a cooperative mode against waves of AI.
Cost and platforms
Free to download and play on Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S, with support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets. It sells premium vehicles, premium account time and cosmetics for real money.
War Thunder is sometimes listed as available on mobile. That conflates it with War Thunder Mobile, which is a separate game with a separate client and a separate progression. The link on this page goes to the PC and console game.
Partner link
Open the official War Thunder pagePaid partner link. It opens an interstitial on this site, then the official War Thunder page at warthunder.com. We may be paid if you register.
What we could not verify
- The player count in top Battle Rating ground battles. Gaijin announced an increase and declined to give the number. Nobody has published a reliable measurement since.
- The exact vehicle count today. It changes with every update, and the counts in circulation disagree with one another. We give an order of magnitude and nothing finer.
- Naval and helicopter match sizes specifically. The 16 v 16 figure is documented for the main modes; we could not source a separate, current figure for naval battles.
- Any detection, cheating or matchmaking-fairness rate. No such measurement exists publicly, so we make no claim about it.
- Which game is better. Not a measurable question.
Where these figures come from · How we work · The Enlisted guide
Questions we get asked
How many players are in a War Thunder match?
Sixteen per side is the standard full match in the main battle modes. Gaijin has said it raised the number on large maps in top Battle Rating ground Realistic Battles, but it did not publish the new figure.
How many people can be in a War Thunder squad?
Four, including you. Squadron events are the exception and allow eight. Ordinary matchmaking does not.
How many vehicles and nations does War Thunder have?
Roughly 2,500 vehicles across 10 playable nations, plus sub-trees that fold other countries' vehicles into those nations. The exact number moves with every update.
Are submarines playable in War Thunder?
No. Naval forces are surface ships: boats, destroyers, cruisers and battleships. There are no playable submarines.
What is the difference between Arcade, Realistic and Simulator?
They are three settings of the same game at increasing realism. Arcade gives the most assistance and the most forgiving damage. Realistic removes much of that help. Simulator removes nearly all of it, including the third-person view in aircraft.