Release History

0:05 Wardogs came out in Steam Early Access on Thursday, Sep 10, 2026, at 16:00 UTC (9 am PT), seven months after Bulkhead and Team17 announced it on Feb 5, 2026. Between the two came small pre-alpha playtests, a closed alpha, pre-orders from Aug 11, a first closed beta in August and a second that Bulkhead opened to everyone on Sep 5. The launch sold over a million copies in a day and buckled the login servers. Season 2 followed on Oct 15, 2026, and Season 3 is expected on Nov 12. The Wardogs page covers the game itself, and Patches and Updates lists every patch.

Quick facts

Sources: Bulkhead and Team17, Feb 5, 2026; Bulkhead, Aug 11, 2026; Bulkhead, Sep 5, 2026; PC Gamer, Sep 9, 2026; Bulkhead, Oct 15, 2026; PCGamesN, Oct 25, 2026.

Timeline

Sources: Bulkhead and Team17, Feb 5, 2026; Bulkhead's Steam news posts of Feb 10, Apr 7, May 26, Jun 6, Jun 7, Aug 11, Aug 14, Sep 1, Sep 5, Sep 9, Sep 10, Sep 11, Sep 15, Sep 26 and Oct 15, 2026 (each linked below); Tech Times, Sep 6, 2026; SteamDB on Steam, Sep 13, 2026; PCGamesN, Oct 25, 2026.

Announcement: Feb 5, 2026

0:41 Bulkhead and Team17 announced Wardogs on Feb 5, 2026 as a "Tactical All Out Warfare FPS" coming to Steam Early Access in 2026: 100 players in three teams, a randomized 2x2 km Control Zone, first to 100 points, on a 256 km² map built in Unreal Engine with Bulkhead's War Dynamics Framework. The trailer showed infantry, vehicles, base building, destruction and proximity chat, and Bulkhead added that "All clips recorded in-game" (Bulkhead, Feb 9, 2026). Interest came fast: 100,000 wishlists in three days and over 200,000 in two weeks (Bulkhead's FAQ, Feb 18, 2026). How the game got there is on Development History. The clip is from the announcement trailer: infantry in a house, the Control Zone on the map, "Cash is king" and tanks firing.

Through spring Bulkhead explained the plan in videos. The Apr 7 "Early Access & Beyond" video set out what would be built during Early Access (see Early Access and Roadmap), wishlists reached 500,000 on May 26, and the Gameplay Trailer premiered at the Future Games Show on Jun 6, 2026, when Bulkhead said the game had "3+ years of development" behind it.

Pre-alpha playtests and the closed alpha

1:36 Pre-alpha playtests with "a small selection of real players" had been running for a few months by June 2026, when Bulkhead began adding more of them (Bulkhead, Jun 7, 2026); sign-ups went through Bulkhead's community site. The first official livestream, with real playtesters, ran on Jul 23, 2026 on Bulkhead's Twitch channel, and ended early in a one-day Twitch suspension after an on-stream prank (PCGamesN, Jul 24, 2026). A closed alpha weekend ran just before Aug 11, and that day Bulkhead lifted its NDA on alpha footage (Bulkhead, Aug 11, 2026).

Pre-orders: Aug 11, 2026

0:39 Pre-orders opened on Aug 11, 2026 at $39.99, with the Sep 10 release date and guaranteed access to the first closed beta. Brammer admitted that "Taking pre-orders for an Early Access game is unusual", and Bulkhead told buyers it would "actively encourage refunding" if the beta disappointed them (Bulkhead). The reason was practical: Bulkhead said it was "capped on how many Steam Keys we can send externally", so beta access moved to pre-orders and Steam's playtest sign-up. The same day it posted a video of "10 Reasons NOT to Buy", and Wardogs at once became Steam's top-selling premium game (PC Gamer, Aug 11, 2026). Wishlists passed 1 million on Aug 14. Editions and refunds are on Price and Supporter Edition.

Closed Beta 1: Aug 21 to 23, 2026

0:30 The first closed beta ran from Friday, Aug 21 at 11 am PDT to Sunday, Aug 23 at 8 pm PDT, open to pre-orders and to players who clicked Request Access on the store page (PCGamesN, Aug 18, 2026). It drew more than 87,000 players on its first day amid "crippling server issues" (PC Gamer, Aug 21, 2026), and peaked at 105,774 on Steam (Tech Times). PC Gamer wrote that the peak beat anything Squad, Hell Let Loose or Arma ever had, and Bulkhead co-founder Howard Philpott said nearly 500,000 unique players tried it (PC Gamer, Aug 24, 2026).

Closed Beta 2 and the open beta: Sep 3 to 6, 2026

Bulkhead announced the second beta on Sep 1 as "a genuine scale test" of server scaling, the server browser, Twitch Drops, voice chat and the login queue, with invites sent in waves (Bulkhead, Sep 1, 2026). It began on Sep 3 at 18:00 UTC; the firing range opened 24 hours early and drew about 30,000 players (PC Gamer, Sep 2, 2026). Day one peaked at 162,488, third on Steam (Inven Global, Sep 3, 2026), and the beta passed 200,000 on Sep 4. On the opening evening, Sep 3 at 18:00 UTC, Bulkhead also hosted its own showcase, The FPS Games Show (Bulkhead), where it announced a clip contest with a $100,000 cash prize.

On Sep 5, 2026 Bulkhead posted "THE CLOSED BETA IS NOW AN OPEN BETA!" and invited everyone to "Come break our servers" until Sunday at 08:00 UTC (Bulkhead). The final test peaked at 245,118 at 17:38 UTC on Sep 5 (Tech Times, Sep 6, 2026), the figure Bulkhead and Team17 repeated in their launch release. No Wardogs demo or Steam Next Fest entry appears in Bulkhead's Steam news or in press coverage.

The launch: Sep 10, 2026

Pre-load opened on Sep 9 with the Season 1 changelog, a 41.7 GB download. Steam unlocked the game at 16:00 UTC on Thursday, Sep 10, 2026, which PC Gamer listed as these local times (PC Gamer, Sep 9, 2026):

Source: PC Gamer, Sep 9, 2026.

1:10 The launch trailer went up the same day, ending "COMING TO CONSOLES IN 2028. RELEASING ON STEAM EARLY ACCESS TODAY." (Bulkhead), and PlayStation 5 and Xbox wishlists opened (Bulkhead and Team17). Early Access opened with three maps, each with three variations, and Brammer's line in the launch release was blunt: "But this is still early access." The clip is the end of the launch trailer, down to its console card and "Available now via Steam Early Access".

Launch-day queues and outages

1:41 The servers were overwhelmed within hours. Players sat in a login queue, Bulkhead took servers offline to fix "an issue that wasn't present in the previous beta", and Brammer said the queues were partly from being "rate-limited by Valve" (PC Gamer, Sep 10, 2026). At one point 45,590 players were in the game and 168,000 waiting, with only about 10 of the planned 100 players a second getting through as login tickets expired (PCGamesN, Sep 12, 2026). Players reported waits of 40 minutes to several hours, and the Steam rating fell to Mixed that evening (TheGamer, Sep 10, 2026). The clip is Bulkhead's launch-day recap, filmed beside a screen showing 46k players in game and 117k in the queue.

Launch Stability Hotfix #1 went out at 20:20 UTC: every logged-in player had to restart, update and requeue, and players were let back in "in controlled batches". PCGamesN reports that staff then admitted players by hand, 10,000 at a time, until the queue reached zero. Eleven streamers had been moved to the front of the queue; Bulkhead apologized in game with "We are dick heads" and moved influencers to the back the next day (GamesRadar+, Sep 14, 2026). Common errors and fixes are on Crashes and Errors.

Sales and players kept climbing anyway. Bulkhead reported 1.25 million copies by 01:05 UTC on Sep 11, and SteamDB measured the all-time peak of 428,666 on Sep 13. Patch 0.11 and an hour of maintenance followed on Sep 14, sales passed 2 million on Sep 15 and 3 million on Sep 26. The counts by date are on Player Count.

The Supporter Edition

The Supporter Edition has been on sale since pre-orders opened on Aug 11, 2026, at $49.99: the game plus the Supporter Pack of three faction starter-weapon camos, a Little Bird "Taxi" camo, a scoreboard icon and two bobbleheads (Bulkhead). It is the only paid extra in Early Access. Contents and prices by region are on Price and Supporter Edition.

Season 2: Oct 15, 2026

10:36 Bulkhead teased Season 2 on Sep 22, previewed it on Oct 9 and posted the patch notes on Oct 14. It went live as update 0.2.0 on Oct 15, 2026 after maintenance from 08:00 to 09:30 UTC, adding four weapons, four vehicles, rain and a progression wipe (Bulkhead, Oct 14, 2026). Its Lonestar bonus was removed the next day, and on Oct 17 Bulkhead said it would bring Season 3 forward "significantly" (PCGamesN, Oct 17, 2026). On Oct 21 Wardogs' X account announced a 175 ms ping cap for official servers (GameWatcher, Oct 22, 2026). The details are on Season 2. The clip is the end of Bulkhead's Oct 9 preview, with rain in a game clip and the cards "15th October 2026" and "Season 2".

Season 3: Nov 12, 2026, per Brammer

Season 3 is set for Thursday, Nov 12, 2026, according to a reply Brammer posted on Steam: "Season 3 has been brought forward to November 12th to give everyone a proper fresh start" (Shacknews, Oct 25, 2026; also PCGamesN). As of Oct 26, 2026 no Bulkhead news post had confirmed the date. After it, Bulkhead plans seasons of about three months with a smaller update halfway through. See Season 3 and Seasons and Wipes.

Consoles and 1.0

PlayStation 5 and Xbox versions are planned for 2028, and Brammer ties them to the 1.0 launch (GamesRadar+, Sep 21, 2026). No date for 1.0 exists as of Oct 26, 2026; the store says Early Access will last "around 1 to 2 years" (Steam). See Consoles and Crossplay.

Frequently asked questions

When did Wardogs come out? Wardogs came out in Steam Early Access on Thursday, Sep 10, 2026, at 16:00 UTC, which was 9 am PT, 12 pm ET and 5 pm in the UK. It is on Windows PC through Steam only.

When was Wardogs announced? Bulkhead and Team17 announced Wardogs on Feb 5, 2026, as a Tactical All Out Warfare FPS for Steam Early Access in 2026.

Was there a Wardogs beta? Yes: Wardogs had two closed betas, Aug 21 to 23 and Sep 3 to 6, 2026, and Bulkhead opened the second to everyone on Sep 5. That open beta peaked at 245,118 players on Steam.

Why were there queues at the Wardogs launch? Wardogs' login system let in far fewer players than planned as hundreds of thousands arrived, and Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer said the studio was partly "rate-limited by Valve". A hotfix at 20:20 UTC on Sep 10, 2026 and batches admitted by hand cleared the queue.

When does Wardogs leave Early Access? Wardogs has no 1.0 date as of Oct 26, 2026. The store says Early Access will last around one to two years, and Bulkhead ties 1.0 to the console versions planned for 2028.

When is the next Wardogs season? Wardogs Season 3 starts on Nov 12, 2026, according to a Steam reply by Bulkhead CEO Joe Brammer reported by PCGamesN and Shacknews; Bulkhead had not posted it in its news as of Oct 26, 2026.

Sources

• WARDOGS | Road to Season 02, Bulkhead, Oct 9, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS | Announcement Trailer, Bulkhead, Feb 5, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS | Pre-Alpha Announcement, Bulkhead, Jun 7, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS | 10 Reasons NOT to Buy, Bulkhead, Aug 11, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS | Beta Recap & Next Steps, Bulkhead, Aug 24, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS | Launch Trailer, Bulkhead, Sep 10, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS | Launch Day Recap, Bulkhead, Sep 11, 2026 (video)
• WARDOGS ANNOUNCED BY BULKHEAD & TEAM17, EARLY ACCESS LAUNCH PLANNED FOR 2026, Bulkhead and Team17 (Games Press), Feb 5, 2026
• WARDOGS - Official Announcement Trailer, Bulkhead, Feb 9, 2026
• 100,000 Steam Wishlists!, Bulkhead, Feb 10, 2026
• WARDOGS - TOP QUESTIONS, Bulkhead, Feb 18, 2026
• WARDOGS - Early Access & Beyond, Bulkhead, Apr 7, 2026
• 500,000 Steam Wishlists!, Bulkhead, May 26, 2026
• WARDOGS - Gameplay Trailer, Bulkhead, Jun 6, 2026
• WARDOGS Pre-Alpha Announcement, Bulkhead, Jun 7, 2026
• First WARDOGS Livestream!, Bulkhead, Jul 22, 2026
• First-ever Wardogs stream ends in a Twitch ban, PCGamesN, Jul 24, 2026
• PRE-ORDER NOW!, Bulkhead, Aug 11, 2026
• Hardcore FPS immediately becomes Steam top seller as devs list '10 reasons not to buy' it, PC Gamer, Aug 11, 2026
• WARDOGS IS COMING TO STEAM EARLY ACCESS ON 10 SEPTEMBER, Team17 (Game Developer), Aug 13, 2026
• 1 MILLION WISHLISTS ON STEAM, Bulkhead, Aug 14, 2026
• You can play new, realistic FPS Wardogs for free this weekend, PCGamesN, Aug 18, 2026
• 2 Steam top sellers, 2 simultaneous betas, 2 very different shooters, PC Gamer, Aug 21, 2026
• Nearly 500k players showed up for the Wardogs beta, PC Gamer, Aug 24, 2026
• WARDOGS | Closed Beta 02 Announcement, Bulkhead, Sep 1, 2026
• 30,000 people line up 24 hours early to play the final Wardogs closed beta, PC Gamer, Sep 2, 2026
• WARDOGS 2nd CBT Hits 160,000 Concurrent Steam Players, Inven Global, Sep 3, 2026
• As Wardogs blows past 200k Steam concurrents, its developers are prepared for the day 'hype dies down', PC Gamer, Sep 4, 2026
• Announcing the WARDOGS $100K Clip Contest, Wardogs on X, Sep 3, 2026
• THE CLOSED BETA IS NOW AN OPEN BETA!, Bulkhead, Sep 5, 2026
• Wardogs Beta Ends With 245K Players, Tech Times, Sep 6, 2026
• Pre-Load Live & Season 1 Changelog, Bulkhead, Sep 9, 2026
• Wardogs release date and launch times, PC Gamer, Sep 9, 2026
• WARDOGS LAUNCH TRAILER, Bulkhead, Sep 10, 2026
• From 1 million wishlists to 1 million copies sold, Bulkhead and Team17 (Games Press), Sep 10, 2026
• Wardogs servers go down as over 300,000 people rush to play on launch day, PC Gamer, Sep 10, 2026
• Launch Stability Hotfix #1, Bulkhead, Sep 10, 2026
• Wardogs Is Being Review Bombed For Having Hour Long Queue Times, TheGamer, Sep 10, 2026
• 1.25 MILLION COPIES SOLD!, Bulkhead, Sep 11, 2026
• Wardogs dev reflects on the FPS game's messy Steam takeover, PCGamesN, Sep 12, 2026
• SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE & PATCH 0.11, Bulkhead, Sep 12, 2026
• WARDOGS peaks at 428k players, SteamDB (Steam news), Sep 13, 2026
• Wardogs devs are "d*** heads," according to Wardogs devs, GamesRadar+, Sep 14, 2026
• 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD, Bulkhead, Sep 15, 2026
• Wardogs CEO braces for an Arc Raiders situation, GamesRadar+, Sep 21, 2026
• WARDOGS | Season 02 Teaser, Bulkhead, Sep 22, 2026
• 3 Million Sales + Golden Joystick Awards, Bulkhead, Sep 26, 2026
• WARDOGS | Season 02 Patch Notes, Bulkhead, Oct 14, 2026
• WARDOGS | SEASON 02 IS NOW LIVE, Bulkhead, Oct 15, 2026
• Wardogs Season 3 could be brought "significantly" forward, PCGamesN, Oct 17, 2026
• Wardogs Begins Region Locking to Combat Cheaters as Season 3 Could Arrive Early, GameWatcher, Oct 22, 2026
• "We've got to slow down," Wardogs developer admits after Season 2's rocky rollout, PCGamesN, Oct 25, 2026
• When does Wardogs Season 3 start?, Shacknews, Oct 25, 2026
• WARDOGS on Steam, Steam, read Oct 26, 2026
• appdetails for app 1867240, Steam, read Oct 26, 2026