2026 has arrived! With a new year upon us, we would like to take a moment and look back on Arma 3's highlights in 2025.
We celebrated 12 years of Arma 3, released new platform updates, had new CDLC updates, and we welcomed over a million new recruits to our community's ranks!
2025 IN NUMBERS
Here are some of this year’s key accomplishments summarized in an infographic:
LIVE OPS
Over one million new players have joined the fight! If any of these new recruits are reading this and are wondering where to get started (or if you’re a long-time player looking to brush up on your knowledge), we recommend playing the Showcase scenarios and Prologue campaign first. From there, you can play the East Wind campaign, or, if multiplayer is more your style, you can use the server browser to find both official and community run servers with a number of different game modes. If you are thinking of joining a unit, you can check out Arma 3 Units, Steam Discussions, and the FindAUnit Subreddit to see what’s out there. There is definitely a unit for every player, from casual to hardcore realism!You can also check out our 2024 article on finding an Arma 3 Unit, which is just as relevant in 2026!
Arma 3 has been a major platform for mod developers and content creators. 165,000+ mods are currently available to the public on the Arma 3 Steam Workshop - a net increase of over 15,000 new mods since 2024. This is a staggering amount of free additional content made by our talented and dedicated community!
For new players looking to step into modded gameplay for the first time, we published an article way back in April of 2024 that lists some mods that are core staples of many community veterans and units. We believe these mods provide a significant amount of content and expanded game mechanics that will enhance your Arma 3 experience and give you countless hours of immersive milsim gameplay.
We expanded upon this initial article throughout 2024 and early 2025 with others, each focused on a different mod theme - weapons, equipment, aircraft, vehicles, boats and ships, factions, terrains, gameplay,and total conversion mods. For a comprehensive overview of all of our mod recommendations, check out this article.
To end 2025, we decided to also feature some of the best singleplayer, cooperative,and player vs. player scenarios and game modes made by the community.
Continued Platform Development
2025 saw the release of Arma 3 Game Update 2.20, along with one hotfix. This performance update brought sweeping fixes and improvements for players and community content creators. Notable additions to the game included Steam Game Recording, UH-80 / AH-99 Stub Wings with weapon pylon systems, and Illumination Flares.
For an in-depth review of the performance optimizations brought to Arma 3 with Update 2.20, you can read this OPREP by programmer dedmen.
The experimental client for Mac is current to Arma 3 2.20. This port supports Apple silicon (M1/M2) and Intel chips, ensuring improved performance and better compatibility as well as crossplay compatibility with the Windows version. Now you can enjoy the same official DLC content as your friends playing on Windows!
CREATOR DLC
Our external third-party development partners released content updates for their Arma 3 Creator DLCs throughout 2025.
ČSLA Studio released a content update early in the year for the ČSLA Iron Curtain. Update 1.2 adds new factions, vehicles, weapons, equipment, and more.
In May, Vertexmacht released a sixth content update for Global Mobilization - Cold War Germany, bringing all-new vehicles, vehicles, weapons, equipment, objects, and features.
Spearhead 1944 by Heavy Ordnance Works received a minor update in the Summer, bringing new assets and numerous fixes and improvements. The Spearhead Extended (SPEX) companion mod also received major content updates throughout 2025, most notably adding Commonwealth Forces to the fight.
Tiny Gecko Studios released a content update for Expeditionary Forces just in time for its one year anniversary! You can learn more about the update here.
Savage Game Design has continued to support their S.O.G. Nickel Steel project in 2025 with major content updates. You can learn more about this Steam Workshop content pack, as well as other initiatives, on the S.O.G. Prairie Fire Discord.
Finally, Rotators Collective released some small updates for both of their Creator DLCs. Reaction Forces Updates 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 as well as Western Sahara Updates 1.1.6 and 1.1.7 added new assets and variants of existing ones, as well as various fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
Throughout 2025, the creativity of the Arma community was on full display, and with our Community Spotlights and Community Radars, we've highlighted many new artworks, videos, events, and mods. As with our previous Years in Review articles, it is difficult to select only a few of our favorites. Below you'll see a sample of 2025's community content, but you can find many other community-made works re-shared on our various social media channels.
Artworks
We've seen a range of community artists share their talents every day throughout 2025. Even over a decade later, there doesn't appear to be any lack of creativity!
Videos
Whether it's gameplay, machinima, or tutorials, the community continues to be passionate about creating videos! Here are but a few of a number of video made about Arma 3 this past year:
Mods & Addons
We owe the modding community a significant amount of gratitude for their steady production of high quality modifications to Arma 3. We still see amazing creations - both big and small - that continue to push the limitations of the game!
- Pegasus Bridge by swurvin
- Arma Factions Reimagined (AFR) by AugCph
- Spearhead Expansion Project by Cover Fire Studios
- QAV - OPFOR Vehicles Pack by Quiggs
- MQ-9A Reaper by RKSL Studios
Community Profiles
We featured two more amazing community members last year in our Community Profile blog series. These mini-interviews aim to give you personal insight into their backgrounds, why they got into Arma, and how they typically experience the game.
Community Play Session Live Streams
We hosted four Arma 3 live streams last year, featuring 3 Commando Brigade and 4th Infantry Brigade joint operation, S.O.G. Zombies, Across the Fence gameplay.
You can view the full playlist of Arma 3 Live Streams here on YouTube.
2026
In 2026, we're still working hard on supporting Arma 3 live ops in its 13th year! We will continue our maintenance and support of the game as we have in previous years. We are closely collaborating with Creator DLC studios to update their existing projects, and there are entirely new Creator DLCs in the works.
We look forward to plenty of community activity in 2026 and beyond. Of course we’ll continue to showcase your efforts via our Community Radar, Facebook Page, X account, and other social media platforms. If you are looking to contribute yourself, the Arma Discord and Arma Subreddit are great places to participate and share your works! Play Session Live Streams will continue, and we plan to expand our streaming program to potentially include interviews and creative sessions with content creators and modders for Arma's 25th anniversary.
2026 is sure to be a milestone year for the Arma Platform!