ARK Spinoff Reaches Major Player Milestone with Free-to-Play Model

Summary

• ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition surpassed 3 million downloads in just 3 weeks after its launch.
• The game faces mixed reviews but continues to rise in popularity on iOS and Android.
• Grove Street Games plans to add new maps and content to the dinosaur-infested world in the future.

ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition, the latest addition to the ARK franchise, has achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing three million downloads within three weeks of its launch on December 18, 2024. This free-to-play mobile game, developed by Grove Street Games and published by Snail Games, is set in the same universe as the 2017 hit, ARK: Survival Evolved. Players can immerse themselves in a survival experience, collecting resources, crafting weapons, building settlements, and taming dinosaurs, much like its console counterparts.

Despite receiving mixed reviews at launch, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition has shown strong performance, significantly outpacing the 2018 mobile port of ARK: Survival Evolved with a 100% increase in player downloads. On January 10, 2025, Snail Games announced this impressive achievement, highlighting the game's rapid growth in popularity. Grove Street Games is not resting on its laurels; they are actively working on expanding the game's content with new maps such as Ragnarok, Extinction, Genesis Part 1, and Genesis Part 2.

The game's success is evident in its rankings on mobile platforms. On iOS, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition ranks 24th among adventure games and 9th among top-grossing adventure games on Android. User ratings reflect a generally positive reception, with a 3.9 out of 5 rating on the App Store based on 412 reviews and a 3.6 out of 5 rating on the Play Store from over 52,500 users. This launch marks another successful release for Grove Street Games, following their work on the improved Nintendo Switch port of ARK: Survival Evolved in 2022.

Looking ahead, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition is set to expand its reach by becoming available on the Epic Games Store in 2025, offering players more options for downloading the game. Meanwhile, Studio Wildcard, the franchise's owner, has shared an updated roadmap for ARK: Survival Ascended, detailing upcoming content. Fans are also eagerly awaiting news on ARK 2, which missed its anticipated late 2024 release window, leaving many to wonder about its current development status.