The Survival MMO genre in the gaming industry is interesting in many ways. From the ever-so-popular family-friendly Minecraft to ARK: Survival’s more serious and wild world. Then there’s Rust, the survival MMO notorious for having some of the most interesting player-to-player interactions across the genre. These encounters with other players gave Rust an edge that most survival MMOs couldn’t quite hit, which was the fear of surviving other players who are as desperate for resources and materials as you.
Rust has had a decent run since 2013 when it was released, but now that it’s over a decade old, one would wonder, Is Rust dead?
@ RUST
Unlike other survival games that put you up against the dangers of the natural in-game world, like animals, mutants, dinosaurs and so on, Rust puts you up against the deadliest foe you can face when trying to survive: other players. Each server of Rust can take a capacity of 400 other players who, just like you, are scavenging for loot, supplies and resources.
Players are usually placed into the game solo but can team up with random people due to the in-game proximity chat or friends who joined the same server as you.
Read Also: Best Rust Settings for Low-End PCs
Even though Rust has been around for the past 12 years, its player base is still strong. According to Steam charts, Rust hit an average of 124,496 players daily with peaks reaching almost 260.000 in January, 2025.
These are huge numbers for a game over a decade old; just to put it in perspective, other games like Sea of Thieves, released in 2018, only average about 6200 players; maybe we should ask ourselves, is Sea of Thieves dead? So yes, the state of Rust is very healthy.
The short answer is Yes! Rust is worth playing if you enjoy survival games with looting, gathering resources, and building with the fear or thrill of going against other players. The survival genre in video games is in a very healthy state right now, with a large variety of games to choose from, but not one of them is as realistic or allows you to troll other players like Rust. The servers in 2025 are still fairly populated, and that’s why Rust truly shines.
Now it may be compared to other survival games like Minecraft, Ark Survival Evolved, Scum, Fallout 76 and more, but no one is asking “Is Minecraft dead?” because of its kind of player base, and the other survival games may be different to what you want from a game like Rust. So yes, you can jump into it in 2025 as the state of Rust is very good and will probably stay that way for a while.
Read Next: Best Rust Streamers on Twitch
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
