12 YEARS
[p][/p][p]Servers are now wiped and Santa is packing up and clearing out the bodies, but we hope you enjoyed the Holiday Season. We're getting back to work after a couple of weeks off, which is why this blog is lighter than usual, but we're looking forward to the journey ahead in 2026![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube="K-fvgsGB9QI;full"][/previewyoutube][p]Last month, we celebrated Rust's 12th anniversary, marking an incredible journey. The game continues to experience year-over-year growth, which is quite remarkable for being 12 years old. Rust is now bigger than ever, and it's only going to get, much bigger this year. [/p][p]This year, Rust saw:[/p]- [p]Highest ever peak player count of 259,646 on Steam in 2025 [/p][/*]
- [p]Over 450,000,000 Game Sessions[/p][/*]
- [p]Over 5,800,000 unique players[/p][/*]
- [p]Over 700,000,000 hours played [/p][/*]
- [p]Over 37,000,000 Drops claimed players[/p][/*]
- [p]28,523 Workshop Submissions[/p][/*]
Primitive We kickstarted the year with Primitive, introducing a new game mode and a whole load of new items and raiding methods[/p][p]The Crafting Update The Crafting Update added advanced cooking, farming (chickens, bees), new workbenches, Armor and more[/p][p]Premium Servers Premium Servers introduce a new server type, aiming to reduce cheating and improve fair, competitive play.[/p][p]Jungle Update One of the biggest updates of the year saw the Jungle biome added with climbable trees, deadly tigers and crocodiles, new monuments, boomerangs, blowpipes, and more![/p][p]Friends with Benefits Friends with benefits was one of many updates which saw sweeping QOL updates, introducing party system and snappable deployables to name a few[/p][p]Meta Shift Meta shift was one of several updates which made sweeping changes to progression. Introducing Blueprint fragments, custom crosshair and changes to monument puzzles[/p][p]Quality Of Life Over 400 QOL changes[/p][p]Menu Overhauls Sweeping changes to main menu, server browser and store.[/p][p][/p][p]Alongside a metric ton of improvements and bug fixes.[/p][p]Rust continues to be a labour of love from all of us at Facepunch, and we couldn't have done it without your passion and feedback. Thank you for your continued support, be it playing the game, telling friends, and engaging and communicating with us. We've very much enjoyed everything we've worked on for the game this year.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]
LOOKING FORWARD
[p][/p][p]What’s in store for 2026? Consistency! Continued guaranteed monthly updates on the first Thursday of every month, alongside regular fixes, quality-of-life enhancements, improvements, and exciting holiday events.[/p][p]This year, Rust Mobile will be released globally. We're very excited to see how this performs, all early indicators are showing very promising signs. If you're intresting to learn more about Rust mobile or participate in the next closed beta next, visit: [/p][p]rustmobile.com[/p][p][/p]Next Month
[p]Next month, on February 5th, we'll finally be shipping the Naval update. The update will include player-made boats, which will allow players to travel to the deep sea, explore new islands, and monuments with new AI encounters. This is going to be a massive update. [/p][p][img src="https://files.facepunch.com/ashcoook/1b0311b1/dec2025_naval_update_deep_sea_barrier_3_1080.jpg"][/img][/p][p][img src="https://files.facepunch.com/ashcoook/1b0311b1/dec2025_naval_update_ghost_ships_1_1080.jpg"][/img][/p]Looking ahead
[p]Alongside next month’s Naval update, we’ve got a huge amount of content either planned or already in active development for 2026.[/p][p][img src="https://files.facepunch.com/Alistair/130/12/2025/8r40/c0w.png"][/img][/p][p]You can expect to see new monuments, including apartment complex. We’re also working on new player models and animations, which will improve both how characters look and move. The player update will unblock one of the biggest hurdles to player customisation. [/p][p]We’re expanding the ecosystem with new animals, cows and sheep, for example, alongside a proper animal breeding system. This opens up some interesting gameplay opportunities and adds more depth to the world beyond simple hunting. Bigger and better dung farms? [/p][p][img src="https://files.facepunch.com/Alistair/130/12/2025/1h17/RUST%20-%20Ballistic%20shield%20exploration%20Solid%20swat%20%201a.png"][/img][/p][p]We’re also taking time to revisit older content. That includes expanding on popular features that players already love, and taking another look at less popular systems to see if they can be improved or reworked with the benefit of everything we’ve learned since they first shipped.[/p][p][img src="https://files.facepunch.com/Alistair/130/12/2025/7T10/trainbrad.png"][/img][/p][p]As always, plans will evolve, priorities will shift, and we’ll keep talking openly as things take shape. But there’s a lot to look forward to.[/p][p][img src="https://files.facepunch.com/Alistair/130/12/2025/5x96/RUST%20-%20Armored%20Ladder%20Hatch%20%20Round%20Final%20v1.png"][/img][/p][p]As with prior years, we've set aside multiple months in our internal roadmap for light or no content. These gaps are deliberate to allow us to be versatile and adaptive to community feedback, to have time to focus on and address old content, and to improve recent content. We have a lot we can keep building upon, not all content we add to Rust is supposed to become meta, but rather adding yet another way of achieving a goal. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]CHEATING
[p][/p][p]Cheating continues to be one of the biggest threats to Rust, and it’s something we invest heavily in, both technically and operationally.2025 stats:
[/p]
- [p]338,000+ total bans applied[/p][/*]
- [p]296,000+ permanent bans applied (27% increase from last year)[/p][/*]
- [p]42,000+ temporary bans applied (26% decrease from last year)[/p][/*]
- [p]16,000,000+ cheat reports received (28% increase from last year)[/p][/*]
- [p]The majority of cheaters are now removed from the game in less than 7 hours of playtime, down from 10 hours at the start of 2025[/p][/*]
PERFORMANCE
[p][/p][p]Performance is always an ongoing process. We’re constantly adding and improving features every single month, many of which never make the headlines and sit quietly in changelogs. There’s no magic button we can press to suddenly make Rust run faster. Instead, it’s a slow grind of small gains that add up over time.[/p][p]Over the past few years, we’ve hired several people whose sole focus is performance. A lot of this work is experimental and, frankly, tedious. Things that should/could work in theory often don’t in the real world, and it can take days to weeks just to prove something isn’t viable. Sometimes you spend a long time getting to a result that simply says “nope”.[/p][p]And, like every year, we do mess up performance from time to time. When that happens, we review what went wrong and keep adjusting our internal processes to get better at catching issues earlier. [/p][p]That said, we did ship some genuinely great improvements in 2025, the BIG ones:[/p]- [p]Load and server connection times reduced by around 65%[/p][/*]
- [p]Significant reductions to RAM and VRAM usage[/p][/*]
To date, we've helped payout over $32,701,869 to the community skinners![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]
