World of Warships review

World of Warships is a free-to-play naval combat game from Wargaming, launched in September 2015, with more than 800 ships from the first half of the 20th century. It runs on Windows through Wargaming Game Center, Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Xbox PC app. Money buys Doubloons, Premium ships, Premium Account time and random containers. Its score follows our research formula and can change once we play it.

What is World of Warships?

World of Warships is an online naval action game developed and published by Wargaming. Players command destroyers, cruisers, battleships, submarines and aircraft carriers in team battles on large maps. The Steam page lists more than 800 ships from the first half of the 20th century across 13 national tech trees, with ship modifications, Commander skills and cosmetic camouflages.

The game left beta and launched on September 17, 2015, according to Wargaming's announcement at the time; the Steam version followed in November 2017. It still gets regular updates: Update 15.9, Pacific Front, added a strategy event, Halloween rewards and Black Friday ships, and Wargaming has already posted a teaser for Update 15.10.

Steam lists online PvP and online co-op. You can team up with friends in a Division, join a Clan and compete in the Clan league. World of Warships: Legends and World of Warships Blitz are separate games.

Is World of Warships free to play?

Yes. World of Warships is free to download and play with a Wargaming account. Steam lists it as free to play, and its store page invites players to download it for free.

Free progress runs on Credits and ship XP. According to the official Premium Shop guide, Credits buy and service ships and pay for modules, upgrades, some camouflages and signals. Researchable ships unlock through each nation's tech tree.

Daily containers are free, and each one fills a progress bar toward a Supercontainer, per Wargaming's official container page. Events often include a free track: the Update 15.9 Halloween Treats Event Pass gives containers, camouflages and resources for daily and weekly missions, while its second line costs Doubloons.

Xbox Game Pass members who play through the Xbox PC app also get 7 days of Warships Premium Account and a weekly mission chain, according to Wargaming's April 2026 announcement.

Is World of Warships pay to win? What money buys

Wargaming's Premium Shop sells Doubloons, Premium ships, Premium Account time, Commanders, camouflages, signals and other items. Key facts from official pages:

Premium ships do not need to be researched and, per the Premium Shop guide, earn more XP and Credits than researchable ships of the same tier. All XP they earn can be converted into Free XP, and Commanders can move to them without retraining.

Warships Premium Account gives +65% XP and +50% Credits per battle, according to Wargaming support. A subscription version renews every 30 days until you cancel it.

Doubloons buy Premium ships, permanent camouflages and Commanders in the Armory, convert into Credits, turn ship XP into Free XP and pay for paid event-pass lines.

Premium containers, such as the Jack o' Lantern Premium containers back in October 2026, hold random rewards. Wargaming publishes an official drop-chance page that explains its guaranteed-drop counters, and says the odds for random bundles appear in each bundle's Armory description.

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 Warships on PC, Mac, consoles and mobile

World of Warships runs on Windows PC. You can install it through Wargaming Game Center from the official site, through Steam, through the Epic Games Store or, since April 9, 2026, through the Xbox PC app, where it is part of PC Game Pass. Steam lists Windows only.

Mac is no longer supported. A Wargaming support article says the company decided to cease macOS support and points Mac players to GeForce NOW cloud streaming, or to Boot Camp, which Wargaming does not officially support.

This game has no console or mobile version. Wargaming publishes separate games under the same name: World of Warships: Legends for PlayStation and Xbox, which also has App Store and Google Play versions, and World of Warships Blitz for iOS and Android. Progress in those games is not covered here; this page is about the PC game only.

World of Warships system requirements

Wargaming's support site lists these figures. Minimum: Windows 7 64-bit, an Intel Core i3-3210 or AMD Athlon X4 970, 6 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 640, Intel UHD 630 or AMD Radeon R7 240 with 2 GB of video memory, at 1280x720. Recommended: Windows 7 64-bit, 8.1, 10 or 11, an Intel Core i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 8 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or AMD Radeon RX 570 with 4 GB of video memory, at 1920x1080.

For maximum settings at 1080p, Wargaming lists an Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with a GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 XT; for 4K, an RTX 3060 Ti or RX 6800 XT. The installed game uses 67.2 GB, but installation needs 108.7 GB of free space. A broadband connection is required. Steam shows the same minimum and recommended processors and memory.

Games like World of Warships

If you want another free military game built around vehicles, these titles from our catalog are the closest matches:

World of Sea Battle: a free-to-play open-world naval MMO set in the Age of Sail, in Early Access on Steam for Windows.

War Thunder: Gaijin's free-to-play military vehicle game on Windows, Mac and Linux PCs, PlayStation and Xbox.

World of Tanks: Wargaming's free-to-play tank game for Windows, through Wargaming Game Center and Steam. It comes from the same company as World of Warships.

World of Sea Battle is set in the Age of Sail, while World of Warships covers ships from the first half of the 20th century.

• World of Sea Battle
• War Thunder
• World of Tanks