WARDOGS is not a battle royale and not an extraction shooter. It is a 100-player, three-team tactical FPS about holding ground, spending money, and choosing whether you fight, fly, heal, or build. Developed by Bulkhead and published by Team17, it entered Steam Early Access on 10 September 2026. It sold more than a million copies on day one and quickly became one of the most played games on Steam.

How a match works

Up to 100 players are split across three factions: Lonestar, Valkyra, and Manticore. They fight over a randomized 2x2 km Control Zone inside a much larger Eastern European sandbox. The team with the most people inside that zone scores a point every 30 seconds. First team to 100 points wins.

Inside the zone is the Hot Zone, a smaller patch of ground where a player counts as two people and cash payouts double. Three teams keep the fight unstable. Push one faction too hard and the third walks into your back.

Cash is the class system

Every account starts with $10,000. You buy your loadout each life: weapons, armor, gadgets, and vehicles. Die, and you buy again. Cash persists from match to match, so a wasteful purchase follows you into the next game.

You earn money by helping the team, not only by getting kills. Reviving squadmates, ferrying people into the zone, holding the objective, and tipping good teammates all pay. There is no locked class. Your wallet decides whether you are a sniper, a helicopter taxi, a builder, or an artillery crew.

Combat and the sandbox

Gunplay sits between Battlefield and Squad: slower than a movement shooter, faster than a full milsim. Vehicles and aircraft are bought, not found. Helicopters move bodies. Armor holds roads. Artillery flattens streets. Players can destroy buildings and fortify chokepoints. Communication is proximity voice, so you talk to whoever is nearby, friend or enemy.

Squads are optional. Grouping up adds extra tools, but a lone player can still help by standing in the zone or flying supplies in.

Where it stands

WARDOGS is PC only for now, priced at $39.99 in Early Access. PlayStation 5 and Xbox versions are planned for 2028. Launch queues were brutal and early reviews swung Mixed, then recovered to Very Positive once players could get into matches.

Play it if you want large-scale teamwork with real cost. Skip it if you want a fast solo playlist or a free respawn kit every time. One hundred players. Three teams. One zone. A bank account that remembers what you spent.