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Elite Dangerous
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.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
76 of the 109 reviews raise this.
“Elite Dangerous is not a game. It is hobby. Are you look for a new one? Do you enjoy rabbit holes with accretion disks? Elite Dangerous has enough material to learn while you catch up to the Voyager Probe. It is an…”
“This is, by far, the absolute best space-based simulation game, bar none. With its genesis in the Elite game of 1984, it has evolved into an incredibly rich and detailed representation of the galaxy. Layered on top of…”
“This continues to be the best space sim and sandbox game. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than any other space sim currently in existence? Yes. It does have a steep learning curve. However, the "aggressively helpful"…”
17 of the 109 reviews raise this.
“This is, by far, the absolute best space-based simulation game, bar none. With its genesis in the Elite game of 1984, it has evolved into an incredibly rich and detailed representation of the galaxy. Layered on top of…”
“This is a really good game, there's lots to do and can be sometimes difficult to understand what's going on but once you get a hold of it you'll be ok. The odyssey version (the version I have) is pretty cool, but I feel…”
“I enjoy it. It can be somewhat grindy at times. There is substantial untapped potential, and I’m not sure why the developers aren’t capitalizing on it. Visually, it’s impressive, and the flying mechanics feel solid.”
14 of the 109 reviews raise this.
“400 hours of grinding for 0 hours of fun nothing much to do except combat or grinding towards elite ranks, flight model has the most potential but next to 0 use outside of trying to land. has millions of unique randomly…”
“This is, by far, the absolute best space-based simulation game, bar none. With its genesis in the Elite game of 1984, it has evolved into an incredibly rich and detailed representation of the galaxy. Layered on top of…”
“It looks amazing, the systems feel intricate, every ship handles differently, I can see why it's got a stable fan base. It's great game to chill and enjoy the sights. I got fed up with having to search online for guides…”
9 of the 109 reviews raise this.
“I've been playing this for around 8 years or so, and I've been blown away with how far this game has come. I started playing before Odyssey was released, and when it was, I stayed far away from it. Now, it's essential…”
“Despite the few hours on this site, I first got this game during a free weekend on the Epic Games store and I enjoyed it enough to warrant buying it a second time on Steam. If you like the Amazon TV series The Expanse,…”
“12 year old game that feels brand new. Still getting updates. Come help with the Sanguineous Rim Highway expedition!”
7 of the 109 reviews raise this.
“This continues to be the best space sim and sandbox game. Is it perfect? No. Is it better than any other space sim currently in existence? Yes. It does have a steep learning curve. However, the "aggressively helpful"…”
“ED is great. But its not your typical game. You wont have your hand held at any point. You will have to use external resources. Personally i find the quests and missions to be lack luster and kinda empty. If you are…”
“it has been a very fun game for me so far explore and do missions with a squad or alone”
36 of the 109 reviews raise this · 28 of them still recommend the game.
“What a complete and utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ waste of time that was. This 'game' claims to be a space sim. It's not. It's a research sim. This games onboarding - the way it teaches you the game - is worse than Destiny 2. I'm going…”
“400 hours of grinding for 0 hours of fun nothing much to do except combat or grinding towards elite ranks, flight model has the most potential but next to 0 use outside of trying to land. has millions of unique randomly…”
“Couldnt figure out the tutorial, got 800 credits in fines for things i had no idea what were about, no clue what to do. it shouldnt be this hard to figure out how to do ANYTHING without a guide”
21 of the 109 reviews raise this · 12 of them still recommend the game.
“What a complete and utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ waste of time that was. This 'game' claims to be a space sim. It's not. It's a research sim. This games onboarding - the way it teaches you the game - is worse than Destiny 2. I'm going…”
“400 hours of grinding for 0 hours of fun nothing much to do except combat or grinding towards elite ranks, flight model has the most potential but next to 0 use outside of trying to land. has millions of unique randomly…”
“If you don't own the game and you are reading this, you are at least 10 years too late. Do yourself a favor and just stay away from anything Frontier is involved with. X4 is single player and still 10 times better than…”
13 of the 109 reviews raise this · 10 of them still recommend the game.
“400 hours of grinding for 0 hours of fun nothing much to do except combat or grinding towards elite ranks, flight model has the most potential but next to 0 use outside of trying to land. has millions of unique randomly…”
“My dumbass can't understand engineering, or how to get the stuff for it, but that is literally my only complaint other than no starter mini-campaign esque thing that you could do for easy early game money, since the…”
“Game is good overall but the engineering farming is so boring and pointless that I cannot bring myself to start upgrading a new ship since I know how much time that takes and since majority of new content that keeps…”
10 of the 109 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“Already tried to launch this game ON with 3 diffrent computers. I cannot even log on verification server and I simply cannot connect to the game”
“Tried to play this game for the first time in years, and found that it simply doesn't work. Keep getting login errors.”
“Honestly. I couldn't even play the game. I keep getting this orange sidewinder error and won't let me connect, I did some research and found out this problem has been going on for 6 years now. I personally think if you…”
9 of the 109 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“If you don't own the game and you are reading this, you are at least 10 years too late. Do yourself a favor and just stay away from anything Frontier is involved with. X4 is single player and still 10 times better than…”
“I stopped playing after they told me they weren't going to create life for planets. I was so tired of empty lifeless planets. Maybe it's changed since I played it, but I highly doubt it.”
“Game is good overall but the engineering farming is so boring and pointless that I cannot bring myself to start upgrading a new ship since I know how much time that takes and since majority of new content that keeps…”
Counted across 109 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 77.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“Look, I'll echo some of the problems up front - it has a learning cliff instead of a learning curve, certain third-party tools are all-but essential, and at the end of the day it's a mile wide and an inch deep. There's maybe at best a dozen gameplay loops to put time into, and…”
— a player, Steam review · 1,501 hrs played“ive played this game for the majority of my life, it's amazing, i hate that some players make it difficult for newbies, yall're evil”
— a player, Steam review · 1,308 hrs played“I have tried to get into this game so many times and through various iterations, first playing it at release many many years ago. I find I enjoy it a bit but it soon just gets a bit... boring. Space flight from one system to another is the same, over and over again (land at a…”
— a player, Steam review · 46 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-10). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Elite Dangerous | Rhino SRV Update
Greetings Commanders, The Rhino SRV Update is now live. Built for commanders who prefer extraction over exploration, this heavy-duty surface recon vehicle combines rugged performance with impressive m
Elite Dangerous | August Dev Log
Greetings Commanders, ːsteamthumbsupː Discover the first in-game shots of the Rhino ːsteamthumbsupː Your first details on Surface Mining ːsteamthumbsupː And a sneak peek at the next Operation Step beh
Beneath the Surface: Your First Look at the Rhino
Greetings Commanders, You may have seen last week's cryptic tease of the next new vessel coming to Elite Dangerous. We're delighted to reveal that the Rhino will be arriving at shipyards later this mo
Elite Dangerous | Operations Update | Update 3
Greetings Commanders, The Operations Update 2 is now live. This update addresses a number of issues, including Operations rewards and lost exploration data. Please note that Missing Operations Rewards
Elite Dangerous | Operations Update
Greetings Commanders! The moment has arrived! The Operations Update is here. Your Team. Your Tactics. Your Triumph. Operations brings a new layer of high-intensity, squad-focused gameplay to Elite Dan
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Massively Multiplayer, RPG, Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | Space Sim · Space · Open World · Exploration · Sci-fi · Simulation · Massively Multiplayer · Multiplayer · VR · First-Person · Action · Adventure (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · MMO · Co-op · VR Supported · VR Support · In-App Purchases · Partial Controller Support |
| Languages | English * , French, German, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Portuguese - Brazil * |
| Official site | http://www.elitedangerous.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 8/10 64-bit Processor: Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz) Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 470/AMD R7 240 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 25 GB available space VR Support: SteamVR. Keyboard or gamepad required