Dev Blog #46

I know we mentioned in the last blog that this one wouldn’t follow the usual format, but we have  a lot to share, so here we are… defaulting to the usual format.

Another year on the island is coming to an end, and before the holiday season officially begins, we want to take a moment to say thank you. 2025 has been one of the biggest years yet for Rust Console Edition, and none of it would have been possible without an incredible community supporting us every step of the way.

This year also marked the 12 year anniversary of Rust on PC, which is an important milestone for the game as a whole. Rust continues to grow, welcoming new players and reaching record numbers across both console and PC in 2025. We are proud to be part of this journey alongside Facepunch. If you have not seen the 12 Year Anniversary Trailer yet, now is the perfect time to check it out.

Last month, you shared your thoughts with us through our feedback form and we analysed every single response. The good, the bad, and the brutally honest. Thanks to the huge number of submissions, we feel confident using this feedback to help us shape the future of Rust Console Edition for 2026.

One thing stood above everything else. Performance matters the most.

When we ask you to pick the two things you care about most while playing, smooth performance came out on top with 71.3%, followed by server stability at 37.3% and content updates at 32.8%. Then we asked you what the priorities of the team should be in your opinion, between performance, bug fixing, and content, and the answer was even louder. 84.3% of you chose performance as your number one priority, with content and bug fixing nearly tied behind it.

Because of that, our main focus for Q1 2026 will be performance and server stability. We want the game to be in a strong place before rolling out major updates, so getting the fundamentals right comes first.

Among all the interesting data points, it was great to see that most of you are really happy with how the game looks on New Gen consoles, and more than 80% of you feel highly motivated to keep playing after each wipe. But something that stood out even more was how many of you asked for bigger maps and higher player limits per server… so let’s talk about that.

Bigger maps and higher population servers are on our priority list, and we really want to bring them to the game. But adding them right now would hit performance hard, and that’s not something we’re willing to risk while we’re focused on stability.

So here’s the plan. First we will focus on performance, once this is in a good place we can move towards bigger maps and higher player population. That will then unlock the  World 2.0 update bringing with it new cliffs, rivers, canyons, oasis, lakes and rock formations. Together, this effectively outlines our plans for early 2026, although we are not able to provide confirmed dates just yet. We want to be upfront that not everything mentioned here may land within the first four months, but this is the direction we’re heading and we’re excited to get there with you.

For transparency's sake, bigger maps and higher pop servers will roll out gradually. We plan to start with 4.25k maps and a 125 player cap, and expand from there over time, as performance allows.

Something else we want to bring in 2026 is more server providers to give you more choice, along with a special partner program that will help community servers stand out even more. This program will feature some of the best community servers in a dedicated list, making it easier to find high quality places to play. We’re still working through the details, but fairness and player experience are at the core of it. If you run a server and care about your community, this one’s for you. More info coming next year!

To close things out, we just want to say thank you for all your support. No matter what is said about the Rust community, the one thing that always stands out is your passion for the game and the support you show every day to help us make the console version the best it can be. We’re incredibly grateful for that, and we can’t wait to show you what we have planned for 2026.

The Double Eleven team will be taking a short break starting December 18th to spend time with loved ones and recharge for the year ahead, so things may be a little quieter on Discord and social media for a bit. We’ll be back refreshed and ready for another year on the island.

Have an amazing holiday season, a Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you back on the island very soon…