
Take control of your own starship and blaze your trail in an ever-changing galaxy. Master the arts of combat, mining and trade or venture out into the unknown across a 1:1 scale universe.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
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About
Discover the next chapter of the legendary Elite saga. Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic, bringing gaming’s original 1984 open world adventure to the modern generation with a seamless, connected galaxy, a player‑shaped evolving narrative, and the entire Milky Way recreated at full galactic scale.
Against this vast backdrop, take to the stars in your own starship and do whatever it takes to survive in an ever-changing futuristic galactic sandbox. Acquire wealth and power, develop your skills and knowledge, and earn the right to stand tall among the ranks of the iconic Elite.
In an age of galactic superpowers and interstellar war, your story influences the connected experience and handcrafted evolving narrative. From discovering new worlds, to exhilarating space combat and a fully-realised economy for trade, the galaxy is waiting.

The 400-billion star systems of the Milky Way form the vast and dynamic stage for Elite Dangerous' open-ended gameplay. Constructed using real astronomical data, the stars, planets, moons, asteroid belts, and black holes of our galaxy are rendered at true galactic scale. Chart a course through star systems never before visited by other Commanders and explore the surface of strange and unfamiliar worlds with a Surface Recon Vehicle.

Over 35 distinct spacecraft are ready for you to command, from lightweight exploration vessels to gigantic behemoths ready for battle. Build a diverse collection of ships and outfit them to match your playstyle. Customise every component, weapon and optional module to enhance and alter your ships’ capabilities.

Hunt, explore, fight, mine, smuggle and trade across the galaxy. Forge your path solo or with up to three friends in a Wing. Join a Squadron full of like-minded Commanders and share the highs and lows of your interstellar adventures together.
With the System Colonisation mechanic, the power to claim and expand your very own star systems is in your hands. Whether creating a thriving new economy, a bustling trade hub, or a new port of operations, the galaxy awaits your vision.

The Elite Dangerous galaxy revolves around players’ actions. In an age of galactic superpowers and interstellar war, every player’s personal story influences the space simulation and handcrafted, evolving narrative.
Co-operate with fellow Commanders in pivotal Community Goal events that can permanently alter the state of the galaxy, earning exclusive rewards and recognition for your contribution in the process.
Align with a galactic superpower and alter the interstellar landscape with Powerplay. Support your power or undermine a rival through a variety of means, from hacking starport advertisements to attacking gigantic Stronghold Carriers. Every contribution matters.

Experience unpredictable encounters with other players in a vast, massively multiplayer space. Experience the connected galaxy alone in Solo mode or with players across the world in Open Play, where every pilot you face could become a trusted ally or your deadliest enemy.

The universe of Elite Dangerous continues to grow and expand with new features and content. Regular major updates provide new opportunities and gameplay for you to discover and change the way you play.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Updates
Build ids and update times come straight from Steam's PICS — the same source SteamDB reads. Patch history grows as we record new builds.
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 633 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 631 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
The game is great but dealing with the Frontier fire walls is a pai n in the backside big enough to make you turn elsewhere for game play.
* TL;DR ED is no longer worth playing in 2026. Frontier lost their way. * If you thought EA was bad for micro-transactions, try ED. On release it was a fairly good improvement over Privateer. It also became pretty stable over the two years after release. However, it took a downhill turn in both stability and gameplay. Then things began to sour. There were random changes to key bindings, flight characteristics switched from the realities of controlling a vehicle space more like flying aeroplane in atmosphere, HOTAS features suddenly stopped working as the game tried to directly talk to controllers rather than use proper HID polling, DLC broke the main game so badly it needs disabling to maintain stability, and micro-transactions took the place of the DLC model and so meant the route to game stability (disable DLC) was no longer available. I stopped playing years ago when an update made it impossible to load saved games created before the update. The only way forward was to start grinding again or pay to bypass the game-loop. Interestingly, the save-game issue was coincident with the added ability to pay to bypass the need to grind again. Quite an interesting coincidence.
Elite Dangerous ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (476 Std. – dabei seit 2014) Bin über Community-Empfehlungen und mein Interesse an Weltraumsims zu Elite gekommen – seit 2014 dabei und nach 476 Stunden immer noch nicht enttäuscht. Die schiere Größe der Galaxie, die Flugmechanik und die Tiefe der Systeme (Handel, Kampf, Erkundung) ziehen einen sofort rein und lassen einen nicht mehr los. Exobiologie ist für mich das Herzstück: echtes Entdecker-Gefühl, meditative Ruhe beim Sammeln, dazu die Lore und Wissenschaft dahinter. Die Freischaltung des Guardian FSD Boosters nach langem Farming in den Synuefe-Systemen war einer meiner stolzesten Momente. Ich fliege Mandalay (Sprungreichweite + Optik), Asp Explorer und Anaconda. Die Schildmechaniken (Bi-Weave/Prismatic/Standard) sind komplex, aber genau deshalb belohnend für taktisches Spiel. Der erste Anblick eines Thargoiden-Titan-Wracks (Oya/Cocijo) war beeindruckend und unheimlich zugleich. Läuft bei mir (i7-14700KF, RTX 4070 Ti) stabil und flüssig. Tools wie EDMC/Inara/EDD sind fast unverzichtbar und zeigen, wie engagiert die Community ist. Im Vergleich zu Star Citizen: technisch ausgereifter, entspannter, weniger Grind-Druck, dafür mit der besseren Weite-Atmosphäre. Kritik: UI teils unübersichtlich, Lernkurve am Anfang steil. Fazit: Klare Empfehlung – vor allem für Sim-Fans, die etwas Geduld mitbringen. Nach über einem Jahrzehnt ist Elite Dangerous für mich immer noch eine der eindrucksvollsten Weltraumerfahrungen überhaupt. 👍 Empfohlen
beware: there is a slight chance you might end up enjoying the game for a moment amidst the constant server issues, infuriating bugs and nonexistent QoL. we wouldn't want that now, would we?
The learning curve is so real
Colonization needs more rewards, Operations still adds nothing really of value to the boots on the ground aspect, and FDev still can't find a respectable direction to take the game after the Thargoid War ended.
Constant server DCs every few hours even with gigabit ethernet. Not getting merc coins or rewards from wing missions if im not host. Gaining materials to craft anything feels like pulling teeth. Crafting and Engineering core systems feels awful.
Absolutely goated game, haters have the intellectual capacity of a garden shed
I can't.
Elite Dangerous has been on my radar for quite some time. As someone who is deeply fascinated by space and science fiction, I have played a lot of games in this genre, but I somehow stayed away from Elite until a couple of weeks ago. What always kept me from joining sooner was the perceived structurelessness of the game and the enormous amount of [i]nothing[/i] in between. That changed when I started playing Ace Combat 7 on PC and got myself a flight stick (the WinCtrl Ursa Minor). While playing that, I kept looking for other games where I could use the stick, and I was constantly reminded of Elite Dangerous. Now, I am a few hours into it and I can't stop playing. Even when I am not at my PC, I am constantly thinking about it, a feeling I haven't had in a very long time. To be honest, I really missed being this excited about [b]playing[/b] a game. I am often excited for a game's release and the [i]idea[/i] of playing it, but after a couple of hours, I usually bounce off or venture to the next thing. Elite Dangerous, however, constantly pulls me back in. I truly [b]want[/b] to experience all of it, and I'm happy to take my time doing so.
Related
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Trends
Modeled estimate over time, reconstructed from Steam's monthly review histogram.
Engagement
DAU/MAU are modeled from peak concurrent players (≈×8 and ×28) — Steam publishes no active-user counts, so treat these as rough estimates, not reported figures.
Audience
Audience
Games most often reviewed by the same players — an audience-affinity signal from our review sample, not full ownership data.
Languages: English*, French, German, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil*languages with full audio support
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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