Black Desert on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Quick menu
Played by over 20 million Adventurers - Black Desert Online is an open-world, action MMORPG. Experience intense, action-packed combat, battle massive world bosses, fight alongside friends to siege and conquer castles, and train in professions such as fishing, trading, crafting, cooking, and more!
Black Desert is a mmorpg, massively multiplayer and open world game
developed and published by Pearl Abyss.
Released on May 24th 2017 is available only on Windows
in 11 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Traditional Chinese, Portuguese - Brazil and Spanish - Latin America.
It has received 86,919 reviews of which 64,416 were positive and 22,503 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.3 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Black Desert into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Black Desert through various videos and screenshots.
Load More
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i3 (4th Generation)
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 970, Radeon RX 480
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 80 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 80GB HDD (SSD recommended)
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☑ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☑ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☑ You'll need a second life for grinding (SEE BELOW ) ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☑ It's free! (SEE BELOW ON PTW ISSUES) ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☑ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 So while this is a recommendation please note that this is 100% PTW. While you can play the game for free if you want to actually do endgame content you will be required to pay real world money to do so. The entire game is a grind fest for the next loot and once you have the best loot you are forced to Enhance that loot and here is where the PTW comes in. Failing on enhancements will cause the gear to either get worse or be destroyed. Both of which you can prevent with real world cash shop items. Also note that you have to buy points to buy pearls to buy cash shop items. This of course is subject to change as laws are being passed to stop this in lots of places. Also this is a Korean MMO so all the classes are Gender Locked but the customization options are pretty good. Also money is stupid. Again being a Korean MMO the currency in game is sort of based on their currency. The Won. It is like 1400 Won to a USD. $500 USD is >750,000 won. In game things cost thousands of silver. Basic things like heath potions and such. My "family" is running around with almost 3 billion silver. Yeah, Billion and I can't buy much. Grind spots are rated according to how many hundreds of millions of silver you can make an hour. Selling a backpack full of fish gets you around 20 million silver. Instead of taking 3 zeros off the end of all prices they embrace it lol. Thankfully a while back they made silver weightless. It used to have weight and you had to convert it to gold bars to not be overburdened. The story starts out strong in the first quest chain but it falls off the rails after you vanquish the villain. Really. The next 30 minutes you spend hitting "R" because the story ending is horrible. Then it gets back on track with the next quest chain. Do NOT expect to level a character doing quests if you are not on a Season server but that really doesn't matter. I say this as it is more of a precaution to make sure you make a season character and get on a season server (both of which are free for your first 5 season characters). Once that character hits 60 you can move to a regular server but I would recommend not doing so until 61. Here is the issue. You can hit 58 in a pretty solid day or two of season play. Then you hit the XP grind wall. You will spend hours upon hours grinding the same circle of mobs just to get a small bump in XP. There is no max level in the game but I think I read the highest character is level 69 right now. Once you decide you want to take a break there are things called Life skills. Hunting and some crafting and they are pretty involved. Leveling them up takes some time and trial and error without the internet. There is also a whole thing having to do with workers and nodes and storage and workshops that after 500+ hours I have barely even scratched the surface on. There is Adventure Books that will give boots to your "Family" (which is every character made under your account. That also allows me to bring up that your Life Skills are family based and so are a few other attributes. Leveling up multiple characters can also reward you. Open world PvP is turned on by default once you hit level 50 with no way to turn it off and no PvE servers. Just note this down. Nobody runs around killing people as the Karma hit for killing randoms if pretty big but it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Overall I recommend this if you are looking for a decent game with a very very large and somewhat well written story with voice acting that isn't horrible this will work. If you have to be the best in your class or have problems with spending Real World cash on PTW items then steer clear of this one.
Expand the review
As you can see I've only put a small amount of time into this game so i will do my best to give you an honest review. When I first started playing the game it was still in its youth. Plenty of player base and plenty of group content. However like all MMOs i'm afraid this game might be on its last remaining years. There's still plenty of content in the game but its slowly digressing into the pay to win territory and is starting to give away items that used to be hard to obtain. -Pros- new player friendly lots of free gear fun content in the ocean and on land fun character combat combos plenty of different classes lots of quests cool story-line has a semi-large quantity of life-skilling options. -Cons- beyond grindy and time consuming game is becoming PTW player base is getting smaller per year lots of RNG cannot run on an older PC PVP is starting to dwindle probably has another 3 years left of life unless changes are made can be a money sink when starting out.....not as bad as it used to be/can still possible to play for free if you want to. Ultimately I would say the game is still worth trying out if you're looking for a new MMO. But be warned, if you want to be the "best" then give up now. This game will steal hours of life from you and you'll hardly see anything in return when going towards that goal. But if you just want to have fun with others, life skill, defeat some monsters, etc. then this is the place for you!!
Expand the review
*Disclaimer* I won't go too much into P2W in this review. This is purely based on the gameplay etc. TLDR: BDO is a great concept and a visually beautiful game, built on an outdated engine. This loot grinder MMO has 30 unique classes to choose from, 26 of which have 2 different specializations. It's mostly a single player PvE experience with a selection of large/small scale pvp content. Find a class that works for you and get to grinding. Better gear = better grinding = more upgrades. PvP on the other hand is an extremely polarizing experience. While classes are fun to play and extremely satisfying to master, the desync and pvp balancing can really make pvp feel unpolished. To top it all off BDO has a RNG % based upgrade system. Love it or hate it, that's what the game has. One day it's punishing you and the next it's giving you a handy. It's not bad when you start off, but gets worse the closer you are to the gear ceiling. All in all a pretty solid PvE/PvP experience with one of the best combat systems in any MMO. It has the potential to be the best combat-based MMO available, but suffers from performance issues and bugs. Character/Gear Progression: Probably the hottest topic whenever BDO is being discussed. This is a game all about GEAR, not character level. When it comes to combat performance, the gear will provide a vast majority of your stats. Character levels beyond level 62 are pretty much pointless. As long as you have enough skill points(obtained separately from levels) to get all skills for your specialization, 62 is the last level that provides any combat bonuses. From there going forward, it's all about the gear. This gear can be copied to one additional character via the "Tagging" system for a small amount of in-game silver. Allowing you to experience other classes at the full power of your main. Basically enhancing works like this: Every item has a base enhance chance for it's current enhancement level(pretty low %). You add items called "Failstacks" to increase the chance of success(there's a softcap where failstacks beyond a certain point will net little +%). So essentially there is a "max" % chance an item can be enhanced. Then there are items call "Cron Stones" that "protect" the enhancement. Cron Stones are the bread and butter for endgame enhancing and can be acquired in game with silver, from events, or via P2W. So there is a cost to protecting your important items. Whether you are a whale or a F2P player, it's still RNG. Although you only Cron Stone certain items. Most items are not worth cron stoning. Lastly, is Pity. This is the maximum enhancement attempts you can make on an item before the game feels bad and gives you the enhancement at 100%. Every item in the game has a pity. You pray you don't hit these...but it will happen. They added these about a year ago and thank effin god. Before you could fail forever and it sucked! There will be a point in your gear progression where buying the upgrades will no longer be available....then you must gamba enhancement levels whether you like to or not. This will be quite a ways down your adventure path, so don't let that be the "make or break" on you trying the game. Just know that's how current end game progression works. At the peak gearscore, expect most enhancements to be <5% or some as little as .6% with adequate failstack applied. Enhancing is the biggest make or break for people. It's a lot better than it used to be, but still can be pretty disheartening. Thankfully the Pity system ensures you will get the upgrade after x amount of fails. PvE: PvE is a pretty enjoyable experience with a long term gearing curve. You will be spending a lot of time PvE'ing in this game as it is your primary source of obtaining money to upgrade your gear. Even if you play this game to PvP, you will be PvE'ing or Lifeskilling to get them upgrades. The better you can PvE the faster you can obtain upgrades. Thus creates the loop of this game - grind to grind better. Once you have enough upgrades you can go to a new zone. Rinse and repeat. If you only play this game to PvE/Lifeskill(which a lot of people do), you can really do the gear upgrades at any pace you would like. Each step is just a chapter in your own book. No reason to rush. Just take it all in and try out all the zones and lifeskills YOU want to do. There's a lot of different options, choose what's fun for you. Freedom of choice in the mid game is what makes this game great. Enjoy this time before your end game progression becomes more linear(for better or for worse). PvE Bosses: This game offers a lot of solo/4man bossing content....unfortunately it's mostly trash. The rewards are good, but the bosses can be frustrating. Dysnc'd instakill moves, buggy mechanics, and some bosses living in immune frames really make bossing one of the low points in this game. PvP: This is where the sweat comes from. My personal favorite piece of the game. PvP. Capped : AOS (3v3 arena) T1 Node Wars (multiple guilds 100+ players) T2 Node Wars (multiple guilds 100+ players) T2 Siege (attacker/defender battle over castle 100+ players) Capped content, as the name suggests, puts limits on your total base stats like Attack Power, Defense Power, Evasion. These are made for all players. Reaching these caps varies on the content. The 3v3 arena for example can be done with no gear! While the T1 and T2 caps give two different gear limits. These requirements are very easy to hit for a new player. T1 caps can be hit within a month and T2 will generally take 2-4 months to acquire. If you only want to do capped PvP content, you really don't need to PvE a whole lot once you reach the caps and have your crystals/artifacts/lightstones squared away. You can just log on to PvP and use the PvP currencies to buy consumables for future PvP. Kind of a nice feature if this is your goal. Uncapped: All open world pvp(unorganized 1v1 -> 100+) Uncapped Node Wars (multiple guilds 100+ players) Uncapped Siege (attacker/defender battle over castle 100+ players) Uncapped content the sky is the limit. You are competing with the whales and no-lifers here. This is in my opinion the pinnacle of BDO PvP, but also is the hardest to reach. If you aspire to do this content you will need to invest a lot of time or a lot of money to get to this point. You will be optimizing your silver per hour and AFK lifeskilling while you are not actively grinding. I would say the entry level for uncapped is ~1 year if you grind a few hours a day. If you're a gamer dad playing a couple hours on the weekend and you are not willing to whale, it would probably take you 2-3 years to get to this gearscore. All that being said, this is a gamba upgrade system. You could get MEGA boosted for very little effort....but the likelihood is low. PvP is all around extremely satisfying in this game. PvP has unique CC(crowd-control) mechanics, allowing you to CC unprotected opponents. Learning your classes protections and CCs makes the skill expression S+ for BDO. Although BDO has great diversity in its 56 specialization, the dev has shown that it's near impossible to balance them all. On top of this, the game engine struggles with desync and frame drops in large scale content(100+ people on screen). Pretty much all serious PvPers need a graphics preset that reduces the games fidelity by 90% to play at decent FPS. You could have a gaming rig made by jesus himself and still get <30 fps in siege...I'm not kidding. 7/10 (9/10 with an engine update) +PvE +PvP(still fun) +Long term progression +Gear does not become obsolete like "raid tier" style MMOs +Looks Great +Best darn action combat system in any MMO ~ Enhancement system is RNG but now has max fails via the Pity. ~ 11 Lifeskills but only a few are viable profit. -Game engine can be buggy -Devs unable to balance all 56 specs for pvp -Low FPS and desync in large scale pvp -Few too many "pay for convenience" items
Expand the review
A shell of what it was in the past, it's a somewhat decent game for new players, but for long time players... It's a toxic love-hate relationship of a game. *after this point it's just ranting ignore if you don't care* Still looking for another game to bounce to but the sunk cost fallacy effect is strong on this one. I've played this game for near 9 years and i still have no idea what the story is about... not saying it's the game's fault, it's just that it's boring to go through hundreds of hours of npc dialogue when pressing 'R' is so easy. Why are gender locked classes still a thing. You'd think that having most of the income coming from the NAEU servers the devs would listen to them more but no. Fast paced action pvp combat is cool and all, and i know there may be some difficulty in regards to server management or some ♥♥♥♥, but after you're grabbed by the hundredth zerker from a mile away it gets repetitive. Still waiting on that fated BDO killer MMORPG to be released in the future, what was the name again... Bless ? Crowfall ? ArcheAge ? Lost ark ? New World ? Throne&Liberty ? Chrono Odyssey ... ? #MakeMerv'sPaletteFree Class balance isn't easy in any game, and it's understandable that there may be some difficulty in pleasing everyone... BUT, when 7 out of the top 10 of the higuest rated players in ranked pvp are playing the exact same class, you'd think they would try to work on it right? Give red players some love, they are the only ones pvping in this "open world game". "Just go to the arsha(pvp) servers then" haha yes, 3/5 of the encounters there revolve around people server swapping as soon as you meet them to avoid pvp, or crying to leave them alone since 'they just want to grind'. If you see a random shai in the wild, kill it, it's a little demon wearing the skin of a child. i'd say at least 50% of the playerbase is afk fishing in velia both overnight and day, and yet there's still enough fish. I understand giving players a previously BIS weapon to help them catch-up to the somewhat more progressed player playerbase, even more so when a new tier of weapon is being released, but why give them dream/mythical horses, it used to be a luxury players that put in the effort could showcase as a flex, now it's just something everyone gets for free for no reason. Why am i writing all of this? idk i'm just bored. Why are they releasing Wukong as a class? i mean Wukong is cool and all but... why? If you think you've seen it all, there's someone in BDO that bought every single shai underwear, for a single shai. i think i've uninstalled the game while writing this "review", but i'm sure i'll install it back in the future, probably gonna see if <insert random MMO here> is any fun.
Expand the review
I go back and forth on this game and always come back... it is probably the best MMO out there as there is always something to do, skills and combos matter, easy to learn but hard to master type of game play. Pros: You can do anything, trade, sail, cut a tree, kill a player - its all there. It is easy to hit the soft cap and get to the later game content and join your friends. They added PVP where players are evenly matched in the same gear now. A lot of quality of life things for those of you like me who hate the slow parts of a game (auto travel, auto fishing, Quest navigation, etc.) Cons: Insanely grindy - if you want to play with the top players, quit your job, move into the basement you will never leave the screen. Since there is no cap, the gap between casual players and those that focus on the game is massive - with really no real reason for the casual player to put in the time or effort to reach that top tier. Wishlist: Endgame content - let a war kick off or something with a faction vs faction system... Reduce the gap between the casual players and top grinders... let us actually compete. Fix the crafting system - we are so far into god gear that none of the earlier stuff matters... find a way to keep gathering and crafting back into the game.
Expand the review
Similar games
View all
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online
Join over 30 million adventurers worldwide and take part in an epic and ever-changing FINAL FANTASY. Experience an unforgettable story, exhilarating battles, and a myriad of captivating environments to explore.
The Lord of the Rings Online™
Join the world’s greatest fellowship of players in the award-winning online re-creation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendary Middle-earth.
The Elder Scrolls® Online
Every legend starts somewhere and in The Elder Scrolls Online, it starts with you. Join millions of players in an online, fantasy RPG set in a vast living Elder Scrolls world.
Throne and Liberty
Throne and Liberty captures the essence of classic MMORPGs while introducing new gameplay elements, depth and excitement at every turn. Gather your guild, prepare for battle, and set forth for throne... and liberty!
Allods Online
Allods Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, set in the fantasy space opera universe of Sarnaut. It is the fourth opus of the Rage of Mages series which started in the mid-90s, conquering the minds of millions of gamers around the world.
RuneScape ®
RuneScape is a high fantasy open world MMORPG. Explore an ever changing and evolving living world where new challenges, skills, and quests await. Featuring unprecedented player freedom, you choose how to play, adventure, and grow.
Summoners War: Chronicles
The King of Rahil is looking for a Summoner to protect the kingdom against Tefo's enormous conspiracy. Explore a vast world with your Monsters by your side in this new Action RPG set in the Summoners War Universe.
Neverwinter
Neverwinter is a free, action MMORPG based on the acclaimed Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Epic stories, action combat and classic roleplaying await those heroes courageous enough to enter the fantastic world of Neverwinter!
Riders of Icarus
Take the battle to the sky with fantastical flying mount combat unlike anything you’ve seen before in Riders of Icarus, the new unprecedented action-adventure MMORPG experience that lets you ride and fight on the back of the realm’s most dangerous winged beasts…dragons.
EverQuest II
EverQuest® II is a deep fantasy MMORPG with over two decades of content, a thriving world, and ongoing expansions that keep Norrath growing. Create your hero and adventure through a massively rich, ever-evolving universe.
Karos
Karos: Rebirth is a classic online MMORPG with dynamic combat, deep progression, and complete freedom of choice. Explore the vast world of Azmara, join PvP battles, castle sieges, and raids — create your unique hero and join thousands of players today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Black Desert is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam.
Black Desert is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 9.99€ on Steam.
Black Desert received 64,416 positive votes out of a total of 86,919 achieving a rating of 7.33.
😊
Black Desert was developed and published by Pearl Abyss.
Black Desert is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Black Desert is not playable on MacOS.
Black Desert is not playable on Linux.
Black Desert is a multi-player game.
Black Desert features PvP mode where you can test your skills against other players.
There are 3 DLCs available for Black Desert. Explore additional content available for Black Desert on Steam.
Black Desert does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Black Desert does not support Steam Remote Play.
Black Desert does not currently support Steam Family Sharing.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Black Desert.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 29 April 2026 00:29 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 27 April 2026 13:53 |
| Steam price | 29 April 2026 04:47 |
| Steam reviews | 29 April 2026 09:53 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Black Desert, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Black Desert
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Black Desert concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Black Desert compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Online players
19,624
Developer
Pearl Abyss
Publisher
Pearl Abyss
Release
24 May 2017
Platforms