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ARK: Survival Evolved is Studio Wildcard's original 2017 open-world survival game. Players gather resources, build bases, tame and breed prehistoric creatures, and uncover a science-fiction story across The Island and its expansion maps. It supports single-player, player-hosted multiplayer, and unofficial dedicated servers.
Creature utility is central to progression: different tames gather resources, carry cargo, scout, defend bases, or fight bosses. Breeding adds inherited stats and mutations, while map transfers and expansion content create a much larger progression path than The Island alone. Players seeking related survival loops can compare Rust or the more accessible creature collecting in Palworld.
The original ARK: Survival Evolved official server network shut down on September 30, 2023. The game itself did not shut down: single-player saves, non-dedicated sessions, unofficial servers, and player-hosted dedicated servers remain available. Studio Wildcard also made the final official-server save files available so communities could continue hosting them.
Players returning in 2026 should therefore choose a private or unofficial community carefully and check its rates, mods, wipe policy, and cluster rules. Progress on an unofficial server belongs to that server or cluster and is not part of a revived official network.
ARK: Survival Ascended is a separate Unreal Engine 5 remake with its own client, purchase, servers, saves, hardware requirements, cross-platform multiplayer, and mod ecosystem. Survival Evolved characters cannot join Survival Ascended servers, and buying one game does not make it the same product as the other.
As of August 31, 2026, current official development is focused on Survival Ascended. Genesis Ascended Part 1 launched in July, Astraeos received its Heaven & Abyss conclusion, and the Galleon is live. Older roadmaps placed Genesis Part 2 in an August window, but current official posts do not show it as released, so this page does not treat that old target as a launch.
Survival Evolved supports PvE and PvP rule sets through unofficial and player-hosted servers. Tribes share structures and creatures, while PvP communities can enable base destruction and raiding. Steam Workshop mod support remains one of the original game's main advantages on PC, but console players and servers without the same mod set cannot use those Steam mods.
Only its official server network shut down, on September 30, 2023. Single-player, unofficial servers, non-dedicated sessions, and player-hosted servers remain playable.
No. It is a separate Unreal Engine 5 remake with its own store product, client, servers, saves, and requirements.
No. The two games do not share multiplayer servers or character progress.
Yes on the Steam version through Steam Workshop. Every player joining a modded server needs the server's compatible mod set.