MMO fans today mourn the loss of Black Desert Online's free game offer. Black Desert Online was first released in 2015, and is still beloved today for its varied class system, real-time combat, and expansive world. Available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, it's generally a pay-to-play game here in the United States - but for one brief, shining moment, it went free to play.
Beginning last week and until today, July 10, 2025, anyone on Steam could claim the fantasy MMO absolutely free, and keep it forever. Unfortunately, as of 10 AM EST this morning, Black Desert Online's free offer came to an end, and it returned to its full price of $9.99 - which is still fairly reasonable, considering the amount of content included. Potential players who missed out on this giveaway are already looking forward to the next one, as there's a chance it'll go free-to-play again at some point in the future.
Black Desert Online had a pretty solid player base already, but the free offer noticeably bolstered its player count. BDO reached a peak player count of over 23,000 this week, according to SteamDB - the highest it's been this year...
