server requirements
ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server Requirements in 2026: RAM Per Map, Ports, and the Pre-Aquatica Branch
ARK: Survival Evolved is the ARK most private clusters still run, because its mods, maps and old saves never moved to Ascended. The server has not stood still, though: the Aquatica DLC in 2025 grew the download, broke mods and created a permanent second branch. Here are the requirements in exact numbers, per map, from the official wiki and Steam's own data, plus what changed since the guides most people copy were written.
Budget RAM by map, not by player: an empty ASE server needs about 3 to 5 GB on most official maps, 5 to 7 GB on Genesis: Part 1, Crystal Isles and Lost Island, and 10 to 12.5 GB on Genesis: Part 2, then 50 to 150 MB more per player plus growth as the world fills up. Give each server instance 2 fast logical cores and keep 25 GB or more of disk for the install alone (the public server install is about 22.8 GB since Aquatica). Ports: UDP 7777, 7778 and 27015, plus TCP 27020 if you use RCON. Mods broken since Aquatica? The preaquatica branch is permanent.
The requirements in one table
Studio Wildcard never published a formal spec sheet for the Survival Evolved server. The closest thing to an official reference is the ARK Official Community Wiki, which maintains a dedicated server page with measured numbers, and Steam's own data for the server app. Every figure here comes from one of the two, checked today.
| Resource | ARK: Survival Evolved server, as of October 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| RAM (empty server) | 3 to 12.5 GiB depending on map (table below) | Official ARK wiki |
| RAM per player | 50 to 150 MiB on average | Official ARK wiki |
| CPU | 2 logical cores per server instance, single-thread speed first | Official ARK wiki |
| Disk, install | Wiki says about 18 GiB; the current public server depot is about 22.8 GB | Official ARK wiki, Steam app info |
| Disk, extra | Saves, tribe and player profiles, logs, updates and mods on top | Official ARK wiki |
| Network | 100 Mbit or better recommended; up to 60 KiB/s per player | Official ARK wiki |
| OS | Windows 10 22H2 or newer, Windows Server 2016 or newer, or Linux with glibc 2.17 | Official ARK wiki, Steam app info |
| Steam app (server) | 376030 | Official ARK wiki |
| Ports | UDP 7777, UDP 7778, UDP 27015, TCP 27020 (RCON, optional) | Official ARK wiki |
| Current public build | 21241282, updated 19 December 2025 | Steam app info |
RAM per map
The single most useful fact about ASE hosting is that memory is decided by the map before any player connects. The wiki's figures are for an empty server:
| Map | Empty server memory |
|---|---|
| The Island | 3.5 to 4.5 GiB |
| The Center | 3 to 4 GiB |
| Scorched Earth | 3 to 4 GiB |
| Ragnarok | 4 to 5 GiB |
| Aberration | 3 to 4 GiB |
| Extinction | 3 to 4 GiB |
| Valguero | 3 to 4 GiB |
| Genesis: Part 1 | 5 to 6 GiB |
| Crystal Isles | 5.5 to 6.5 GiB |
| Genesis: Part 2 | 10 to 12.5 GiB |
| Lost Island | 5.5 to 7 GiB |
| Fjordur | 4 to 5 GiB |
| Aquatica | Not yet measured by the wiki |
On top of that, the wiki says each connected player adds 50 to 150 MiB on average, and memory also climbs with "game age": structures, creatures and storage. That last factor is the one people underestimate. A two-year-old PvE server with breeding pens and dozens of bases can sit far above the empty-map number with the same handful of players online. Mods add more, and some add a lot.
Worked examples, using the wiki's upper bounds:
- The Island, 10 players: 4.5 GiB plus 10 times 150 MiB is about 6 GiB. Provision 8 GB so there is room for the world to age.
- Ragnarok, 30 players: 5 GiB plus 30 times 150 MiB is about 9.4 GiB. Provision 12 GB, more with mods.
- Genesis: Part 2, 20 players: 12.5 GiB plus about 2.9 GiB is roughly 15.4 GiB. This is the map that turns a 16 GB box into a tight fit.
CPU, disk and bandwidth
CPU. The wiki recommends two logical cores per Survival Evolved instance and, more importantly, prioritising single-thread performance. That matches how the server behaves: the main game thread does the heavy lifting, so one fast core matters more than many slow ones. For the hardware side of that argument, see our piece on why single-thread CPU performance dominates game servers. For comparison, the same wiki asks for four logical cores per Survival Ascended instance.
Disk. The wiki still says about 18 GiB for a Survival Evolved install. That number is out of date. Steam's depot data shows the public server branch at about 22.8 GB today, against about 18.8 GB on the preaquatica branch, so the Aquatica era added roughly 4 GB. Plan on 25 GB or more for the install alone, then add saves, logs, mod downloads and the space SteamCMD needs while it updates. Fast storage helps save times and start-up, especially on big, old worlds.
Bandwidth. The wiki's figure is up to 60 KiB/s per player, shared across upload and download, and it recommends a 100 Mbit connection or better. Sixty KiB/s is about half a megabit, so 30 players need around 15 Mbit at peak. The bandwidth number is rarely the problem; latency and a residential upload that collapses under other traffic usually are.
Ports and launch line
| Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 7777 | UDP | Game port |
| 7778 | UDP | Game port plus one, also needed |
| 27015 | UDP | Steam query port (server browser) |
| 27020 | TCP | RCON, only if you enable it |
Each additional instance on the same machine needs its own set. Install with SteamCMD as app 376030 and launch with the map name first and the options chained with question marks, the format the wiki documents:
ShooterGameServer TheIsland?SessionName=MyServer?Port=7777?QueryPort=27015?MaxPlayers=20?ServerAdminPassword=change-meIf you open RCON, use a strong admin password and restrict the port by firewall to the addresses that actually need it.
Windows prerequisites and Linux
On Windows, the wiki lists two runtimes the server needs that a clean server install often lacks: the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64) and the DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010). A server that downloads fine and then refuses to start on a fresh Windows box is very often missing one of these.
On Linux, Survival Evolved is supported natively. The wiki lists Windows and Linux for SE, and Steam's data for app 376030 shows it for both platforms. That is a real difference from Survival Ascended, which the same wiki says needs Windows or a Windows-like environment, and whose Linux hosting depends on compatibility layers (we covered how fragile that can be in our Genesis Ascended v91 field notes). For a cheap Linux box running a classic ARK cluster, SE remains the easier server.
Aquatica and the preaquatica branch
The biggest change to the SE server in years did not come from Studio Wildcard. ARK: Aquatica, a ten-year-anniversary DLC from Studio Sirens, launched on 15 July 2025 with 21 new creatures, a submerged map and official server support through 2025. It also updated the base game, and that broke mods. The next day the studio opened a branch called preaquatica with the previous build, "available for clients and dedicated servers", so players could go back to their mods.
Two later announcements settled its status. On 20 October 2025 Studio Sirens said the preaquatica branch "will remain a permanently available branch for all users on ARK: Survival Evolved", and on 16 January 2026 it announced that all official Aquatica servers would go offline on 30 January 2026, while DLC updates continue. Steam's data matches: the server app currently offers public, preaquatica ("ASE : Pre-Aquatica"), experimental and the old timecapsule branch.
What that means for a private server in 2026:
- Vanilla or updated mods: stay on
public. It has the Aquatica-era fixes and is where the remaining patches land. - Mod stack that never updated: install the permanent branch with
app_update 376030 -beta preaquatica validate. The wiki ties it to version 358.24 for mod compatibility. Every player must switch their game to the same branch in Steam's Betas tab. - Do not mix. Put the server and every player on the same branch, and treat moving a world between branches as a backup-first operation.
Sizing a real server or cluster
For a single map, the rule of thumb is the wiki's empty-map figure, plus 150 MiB per expected player, plus a margin of 30 to 50 percent for world age and mods. For a cluster, add each map's number together, because every map in an ARK cluster is its own server process with its own memory and its own core. Our clustering explainer covers how transfers between maps work.
| Setup | RAM to provision | Cores |
|---|---|---|
| The Island, up to 10 players | 8 GB | 2 fast threads |
| Ragnarok or Fjordur, 20 to 30 players | 12 GB | 2 fast threads |
| Genesis: Part 2, 20 players | 16 to 20 GB | 2 fast threads |
| Three-map cluster (Island, Scorched Earth, Ragnarok), small community | 20 to 24 GB | 6 fast threads |
These provisioning numbers are our arithmetic on the wiki's measurements, not an official specification, and a heavily modded or very old world can exceed them. The source figures, and their updates when Aquatica is measured, are on the ARK wiki's dedicated server setup page.
FAQ
- How much RAM does an ARK: Survival Evolved dedicated server need?
- It depends on the map. The official ARK wiki lists empty-server memory of 3.5 to 4.5 GiB for The Island, 3 to 4 GiB for The Center, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction and Valguero, 4 to 5 GiB for Ragnarok and Fjordur, 5 to 6 GiB for Genesis: Part 1, 5.5 to 6.5 GiB for Crystal Isles, 5.5 to 7 GiB for Lost Island and 10 to 12.5 GiB for Genesis: Part 2. Add 50 to 150 MiB per connected player and leave room for growth as structures and tames accumulate.
- What ports does an ARK: Survival Evolved server need?
- UDP 7777 (game), UDP 7778 (the port above the game port) and UDP 27015 (Steam query). TCP 27020 is only needed if you enable RCON.
- How many CPU cores does an ASE server need?
- The official wiki recommends 2 logical cores per Survival Evolved server instance and stresses single-thread performance. Run one instance per map; a cluster of several maps needs that per map.
- Can I run an ARK: Survival Evolved server on Linux?
- Yes. The official wiki lists Windows and Linux as supported for Survival Evolved, and the Steam server app 376030 ships for both. Survival Ascended is the one that needs Windows or a Windows compatibility layer.
- How do I keep my modded ASE server working after Aquatica?
- Install the preaquatica branch: app_update 376030 -beta preaquatica validate. Studio Sirens made it a permanent branch for clients and dedicated servers, so players switch their game to the same branch and keep using pre-Aquatica mods.