ARK Spinoff Reaches Major Player Milestone with Free Play

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 free-to-play mobile game from the ARK franchise, has achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing three million downloads within just three weeks of its launch on December 18, 2024. This survival game, set in the same universe as the 2017 hit ARK: Survival Evolved, offers players a chance to collect resources, craft weapons, build settlements, and tame dinosaurs on their mobile devices.

Despite receiving mixed reviews at launch, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition has shown strong performance, echoing the success of its predecessor, ARK: Survival Evolved, which sold over a million copies before its official release. The original game was later remastered and released in early access in 2023 as ARK: Survival Ascended, featuring significant graphical enhancements. The ARK franchise, owned by Studio Wildcard, has expanded to include various spin-offs, with ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition being the latest addition developed by Grove Street Games.

On January 10, 2025, Snail Games, the publisher of ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition, announced that the game had been downloaded over three million times in its first three weeks. This launch performance significantly outpaced the 2018 mobile port of ARK: Survival Evolved, with a 100% increase in player downloads. Snail Games also revealed that Grove Street Games is actively working on expanding the game's content, with plans to introduce new maps such as Ragnarok, Extinction, Genesis Part 1, and Genesis Part 2.

ARK Mobile Game Sees Promising Launch Stats, Marks Another Strong Release by the Developer

The game's success is further evidenced by its rising popularity on both the App Store and Google Play Store. Currently, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition ranks 24th among adventure games on iOS and 9th among top-grossing adventure games on Android. Despite its strong download numbers, the game has received mixed ratings, 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 based on over 52.5K user scores. This launch marks another significant achievement for Grove Street Games, which previously developed the improved Nintendo Switch port of ARK: Survival Evolved in 2022.

Following its debut on mobile platforms, ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition is slated to be available on the Epic Games Store in 2025, offering players more options for downloading the game. Meanwhile, Studio Wildcard has shared an updated roadmap for ARK: Survival Ascended, outlining the content planned for the coming months. Fans are also eagerly awaiting updates on ARK 2, which missed its anticipated late 2024 release window.