World of Tanks review

This World of Tanks review is based on official sources and player reviews, not on our own play time. Wargaming's free-to-play team tank game has run since 2010 and offers more than 800 vehicles. On PC it installs through Wargaming Game Center or Steam on Windows 10 or 11. Money buys gold, Premium vehicles, WoT Premium Account, the WoT Plus subscription, Improved Battle Pass chapters and random-reward boxes.

What is World of Tanks?

World of Tanks is a free-to-play online tank battle game developed and published by Wargaming. The official site lists more than 800 vehicles from the mid-20th century in five classes: light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, tank destroyers and self-propelled guns (SPGs). Steam describes them as spread over 11 tiers and 11 nations, from the U.S.A., Germany and the U.S.S.R. to Sweden, Poland and Italy.

The core mode is 15v15 Random Battles. Other regular modes include Onslaught (7v7), Frontline (30v30) and Steel Hunter, a battle royale mode, plus clan play on the Global Map and in Strongholds. You research vehicles and modules with experience, buy them with credits, then tune them with crew perks, equipment and Field Modification.

The game launched in 2010 and is still updated. Update 2.4.1, Season of Action, brings Tier XI vehicles into clan Maneuvers for the first time and cuts down repeated maps.

Is World of Tanks free to play?

Yes. The official site's page title says "Play for Free," and Steam lists World of Tanks as Free To Play. You need a free Wargaming account, which you can create after installing.

Credits, the main currency for vehicles, modules, shells, repairs and crew training, are earned in battle. Gold, the premium currency, can also be earned without paying: Wargaming lists Clan Wars on the Global Map, official community activities, in-game events and WoT Plus as sources. Bonds come from Random Battles in Tier X and XI vehicles, daily missions, the Referral Program and some Battle Pass stages, and they buy improved equipment, directives, styles and vehicles.

The Battle Pass has free Base Rewards, and days of WoT Premium Account sometimes come from Personal and daily missions and events.

Is World of Tanks pay to win? What money buys

Gold is sold in the Premium Shop and the in-game Store. Per Wargaming's guide, it buys Premium vehicles, WoT Premium Account, Personal Reserves, customization and crew retraining; it converts to credits at 1 gold to 400 credits and turns Combat XP from Elite vehicles into Free XP.

WoT Premium Account gives +50% Combat XP, +50% credits and +50% crew XP per battle plus one extra excluded map. It costs 250 gold for one day up to 20,500 gold for 360 days. WoT Plus is a subscription: Core costs $8.99 a month, and Pro costs $90 for six months or $150 for twelve, per the official guide as of October 29, 2026, with a free 30-day Core trial. An Improved Battle Pass costs 2,500 gold per Chapter or comes in real-money bundles.

Random boxes appear in limited offers. The 2026 anniversary Throwback Box, sold in a 2,000-gold bundle, gives one of five vehicles at a listed 20% each. Wargaming lists drop probabilities on such offer pages.

Based on what the official stores sell, we rate it as mildly pay to win; we will check this again when we play it ourselves.

World of Tanks on PC: Game Center, Steam and Mac

On PC, World of Tanks installs through Wargaming.net Game Center, which the official download page provides, or through Steam, where the game has been listed since April 28, 2021. Steam marks it as Windows-only and Free To Play. After installing through Game Center, you create a game account or log in with an existing one.

The download page says the game is available on Windows and macOS and offers a Game Center installer for macOS. However, the official system requirements page lists only 64-bit Windows 10 and 11, so check Mac support with Wargaming before you rely on it.

Updates download through the launcher, and Wargaming's guide section covers preloading updates and public test builds called Common Tests. All the modes described above, from Random Battles to Frontline and the clan Global Map, belong to this PC version.

World of Tanks on Xbox, PlayStation and mobile

Wargaming publishes a separate console edition, World of Tanks Modern Armor, for PlayStation and Xbox. It has its own website, and the Microsoft Store lists it as free. Its store description mentions more than 1,000 modern and legendary tanks, 15v15 team battles, and a choice between Cold War and World War II battles.

Because it is a different product, the PC details on this page, such as the tech tree, prices and system requirements, do not automatically apply to it. If you searched for World of Tanks on Xbox or PS5, look for Modern Armor in your console's store.

On phones and tablets, Wargaming offers World of Tanks Blitz, which is also a separate game; it has been free on the App Store since 2014. This review covers the PC game.

World of Tanks system requirements

Wargaming updated the requirements with Update 2.3.1.

Minimum: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, an Intel Core i5-3330 or AMD FX-6300, 8 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 270 at a 1280x768 resolution, 70 GB of free disk space and a 256 kbps connection.

Recommended: 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, an Intel Core i3-9100F or AMD Ryzen 3 3100, 16 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon RX 580, 120 GB of free disk space and a connection of 1 Mbps or more for voice chat.

Wargaming says PCs that met the older minimum can still launch the game, but it no longer guarantees stability or performance on them. Steam lists the same CPU, RAM and GPU tiers with DirectX 11 and 120 GB of storage for both tiers.

Games like World of Tanks

These military games from our catalog are also free to play:

War Thunder: Gaijin's vehicle combat game covering aircraft, armored vehicles and ships, on Windows, macOS and Linux plus PlayStation and Xbox.

World of Warships: Wargaming's naval game with more than 800 ships from the first half of the 20th century, on PC through Game Center, Steam and Epic.

World of Tanks: HEAT: Wargaming's hero-driven tank action game, on Steam since May 2026 and also on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Crossout: Targem Games' post-apocalyptic vehicle combat game, published by Gaijin, where you build armored vehicles from parts; its Steam listing is now titled Crossout Remastered.

• War Thunder
• World of Warships
• World of Tanks: HEAT
• Crossout