ARK ASA Roadmap 2026: Promised vs Actual Release Dates
Every ARK: Survival Ascended release, promised date vs actual date
Every other roadmap on the internet lists the date Studio Wildcard said something would come out. This one lists that date and the date it actually turned up, because after three years of ASA those are rarely the same date, and the gap between them is the single most useful thing you can know when planning around a release.
We are not being cruel here. We love this game enough to run 12 maps of it. But there is a reason the community's standard reply to any Wildcard date is "take a shot for the delay", and the table below is that reason with citations. Last refreshed 12 October 2026.
The scoreboard
Dates are the first public promise and the first day players could actually log in (UK time where it matters).
| Release | First promised | Actually shipped | Slip | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scorched Earth (free) | At ASA launch, 25 Oct 2023 | 1 Apr 2024 | 159 days | Shipped on April Fools' Day. We checked. It was real. |
| The Center (free) | May 2024 | 4 Jun 2024 | Days | Practically punctual. Frame this one. |
| Aberration (free) | July 2024 | 5 Sep 2024 | ~2 months | Summer became autumn. Standard. |
| Extinction (free) | Oct 2024 | 20 Dec 2024 | ~2 months | The Christmas present nobody's cluster was ready for. |
| Astraeos (paid, $14.99) | June 2025 ("surprise premium map") | 14 Feb 2025 | 4 months EARLY | The only entry on this table that arrived before it was promised. A Valentine. We remain suspicious. |
| Ragnarok (free) | Sep 2024, then April 2025, then 18 June, then 19 June | 20 Jun 2025 | ~9 months | Delayed by a year, then by a day, then by another day. Commitment to the bit. |
| Valguero (free) | Dec 2024, then Aug 2025 | 7 Oct 2025 | ~10 months | Promised twice, delivered once. |
| Lost Colony (paid, $29.99) | Nov 2025 | 19 Dec 2025, 4am UK | 1 month + 8 hours + "indefinite" | Launch night had an eight-hour delay, then an indefinite one, then it launched anyway. |
| Araneo TLC + Burrowbuck | 19 May 2026 | 19 May 2026 | None | It happens. Occasionally. |
| Genesis Part 1 (free) + Tides of Fortune (paid) | Feb 2025 (yes, really: the 2024 roadmap) then 25 Jun 2026, then 2 Jul 2026 | 4 Jul 2026, 3:33am UK | ~17 months | Then a critical exploit, a network-wide save rollback and two takedowns. Full story here. |
| Dragontopia (paid, $29.99) | 2026 | Shadow-dropped July 2026, full map 9 Dec 2026 | On track, so far | Phased: dragons first, the actual skyworld map at Christmas. |
Add those up and Wildcard has delivered roughly four years of cumulative delay across nine releases, offset by one map arriving four months early. On average, a Wildcard date means "about two and a half months after that." Keep that number in your head and every announcement below reads correctly.
Still to come in 2026
30 September 2026: the big autumn patch
Landed on 30 September 2026 (or thereabouts; we update this when we've seen it with our own eyes). What it carried:
- Unreal Engine 5.8. Originally promised as the UE 5.7 upgrade for March 2026, delayed to "late Q3", and somewhere in the six-month gap the version number went up by one. Wildcard's own engineers called 5.7 "close to a magic bullet" for performance, so 5.8 is the thing every server admin in the world is waiting on.
- Cerberax, the second Fantastic Tames Season 1 creature. Promised for "Q3 2026", delivered on the last day of Q3. That is not a delay. That is a technicality, and we respect it.
- Therizinosaurus TLC, free for everyone. The Theri rework we have been waiting on since the TLC programme was announced. (BG is running a fresh-tames-only Theri PvP arena to celebrate. Details in our Discord.)
- Gargantar, a new Dragontopia dragon, early access for Expansion Pass owners.
ARK: World Creator
The in-game map editor with Lua scripting, promised for March 2026 alongside the engine upgrade, then "late Q3 2026". Not confirmed for the 30 September patch. On Wildcard Standard Time, "late Q3" reads as Q4.
Survival of the Fittest (Studio Sirens)
Promised for Q1 2026. Then a July milestone. As of 12 October 2026 the official wiki lists it as "TBA 2026". This is the ARK release that has been delayed in two different decades: the original SotF launched on 21 December 2023 in ASA form, and the rebuilt version is now nine months past its window.
Q4 2026: Enigmasaur
Third and final Fantastic Tames Season 1 creature. A shape-shifting mimic that stores the form of any creature it watches from the shadows and transforms at will. Still listed as Q4 2026, which means December, which means January.
9 December 2026: ARK: Dragontopia, the full map
58 days away. Wildcard's first non-canonical map built in-house rather than with a mod team. Floating landmasses, procedural shattered islands, enemy outposts, dragon skill trees. The dragons have been trickling out since July; December is when the actual skyworld arrives. $29.99, and it is the one 2026 date that has not moved yet.
When is Genesis Part 2 coming out?
There is no release date for Genesis Part 2 on ASA. The latest promise is Q2 2027, as part of Bob's True Tales: Galaxy Wars. The previous promise was May 2025, which came and went. Nothing has been dated, priced or shown. We keep a separate page with everything that is confirmed, updated whenever Wildcard says anything: ARK ASA Genesis Part 2 release date: what's confirmed →
2027, written in pencil
| Release | Promised | Our forecast |
|---|---|---|
| ARK: Atlantis (sea map building on the Tides of Fortune ships) | Q1 2027 | Summer 2027 |
| Galaxy Wars + Genesis Part 2 (Bob's True Tales, space biome, starfighters, capital ships) | Q2 2027 | Genesis Part 2 was promised for May 2025 on the 2024 roadmap. Believe it when you are on a planetoid. |
| ARK: Legacy of Santiago (an ARK 2 prequel testing redesigned mechanics) | Q4 2027 | 2028, and we would still buy it day one. |
| TLC wave: Quetzal, Giga, Megalosaurus | 2027 | Free, so no incentive to rush them. Late 2027. |
The releases that quietly vanished
The June 2024 roadmap promised, for 2025: Crystal Isles (April), Genesis Part 2 (May), Lost Island (August) and Fjordur (October). None of the four happened. Genesis Part 2 was re-promised for 2027. Crystal Isles, Lost Island and Fjordur have not been given a new date at all. Wildcard has acknowledged the demand; it has not committed to anything. If you are waiting for Fjordur on ASA, the honest advice is to stop waiting.
How to read a Wildcard date
Learned the hard way, over 12 map launches:
- A month means the end of that month. A quarter means the last week of that quarter.
- A date means the day after, in the UK. Wildcard launches during US working hours. Every ASA map has gone live at 3am to 5am UK time the following morning.
- "About an hour" means about four. During the Genesis launch the community team posted "about an hour" at 11:48pm, "about an hour (really 🤗)" at 2:21am, and the servers came up at 3:33am. The "really" is theirs.
- A delay is good news. Every ASA launch that slipped to finish certification launched cleaner than the ones that didn't. The launches to fear are the on-time ones.
- Free content slips further than paid content. Ragnarok and Valguero (free) slipped nine and ten months. Astraeos (paid) came early. Draw your own conclusions.
What this means on BG Gaming
We add free maps and creatures to the cluster as soon as they are stable on the official build, usually within 48 to 72 hours of release, and we went day one on Genesis Part 1 while Official was rolling back its saves. Paid maps (Astraeos, Lost Colony, Dragontopia when it lands) are on the cluster too; you need to own the DLC to join that particular map, and the other maps are open to everyone. Paid creatures (Fantastic Tames, Tidepup) are tameable here for anyone who owns them.
For the 30 September patch specifically: we will hold the update until the plugin framework our shop and quests run on has caught up with the new engine build, exactly as we did for Genesis. Expect a day or two of bypass mode, not a wipe. Nothing you own is ever at risk while we wait.
If you are not on the cluster yet: join BG Gaming. 12 maps, 5x taming and breeding, 2.5x harvest, 2x XP, crossplay PC / Xbox / PS5, no wipe ever, 50,000 free coins on signup. Every map on this page that has actually shipped, we run.
Quick FAQ
When is the next ARK: Survival Ascended map?
Dragontopia's full map on 9 December 2026. Between now and then, the 30 September patch brings Cerberax, the Theri TLC and Unreal Engine 5.8.
Is Genesis Part 2 coming to ASA?
Promised for Q2 2027 as part of Galaxy Wars. It was previously promised for May 2025. No date, price or footage yet. Full Genesis Part 2 status page →
Is Crystal Isles / Lost Island / Fjordur coming to ASA?
Not confirmed. All three were on the 2024 roadmap for 2025 and were dropped without new dates.
When does Cerberax release?
30 September 2026, confirmed in Community Crunch 520.
How late is Wildcard on average?
Across the nine major ASA releases so far, about two and a half months per release, with Genesis Part 1 (17 months) and Astraeos (four months early) at the extremes.
Sources
- Studio Wildcard Community Crunch archive (CC 505: UE 5.7 and World Creator delayed to late Q3; CC 512: Genesis delay; CC 520: 30 September patch)
- ARK: Survival Ascended, ARK Official Community Wiki and the per-map pages for Scorched Earth, The Center, Aberration, Extinction, Astraeos, Ragnarok, Valguero, Lost Colony, Genesis: Part 1, Dragontopia
- Screen Rant: ASA DLC roadmap (June 2024 version, the source of the 2025 promises)
- PCGamesN: Scorched Earth's two delays
- Sportskeeda: Ragnarok's April to June slip and Lost Colony's launch-night delays
- Worthplaying: Lost Colony delayed to December
- ARK Ascended News: 2026-2027 roadmap reveal, Survival of the Fittest Q1 2026, UE 5.7 + World Creator delayed
- ARK2.com: 30 September update (UE 5.8, Cerberax, Gargantar, Theri TLC)
- Fantastic Tames Season 1 on Steam
Roadmap last refreshed 12 October 2026. We update this page whenever Wildcard confirms a new date, moves an existing one, or posts "about an hour".