# Rust SURVIVING 12 YEARS - Product: Rust (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rust-game) - Vendor: Facepunch Studios - Date: 2026-01-01 - Original notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/252490/view/507348444540570069 - Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rust-game/releases/2026-01-01-surviving-12-years What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog. Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'. --- - **added** — Primitive game mode with new items and raiding methods - **added** — Advanced cooking and farming system with chickens and bees - **added** — New workbenches and armor types - **added** — Premium Servers server type to reduce cheating and improve fair competitive play - **added** — Jungle biome with climbable trees, tigers, crocodiles, new monuments, boomerangs, and blowpipes - **added** — Party system and snappable deployables - **added** — Blueprint fragments system - **added** — Custom crosshair option - **changed** — Monument puzzle progression - **changed** — Main menu, server browser, and store interfaces overhauled - **changed** — Over 400 quality of life changes implemented - **added** — Naval update with player-made boats for deep sea travel, new islands, and monuments with new AI encounters - **added** — New player models and animations - **added** — New animals including cows and sheep with animal breeding system ##### 12 YEARS Servers are now wiped and Santa is packing up and clearing out the bodies, but we hope you enjoyed the Holiday Season. We're getting back to work after a couple of weeks off, which is why this blog is lighter than usual, but we're looking forward to the journey ahead in 2026! Last month, we celebrated Rust's 12th anniversary, marking an incredible journey. The game continues to experience year-over-year growth, which is quite remarkable for being 12 years old. Rust is now bigger than ever, and it's only going to get, much bigger this year. This year, Rust saw: - Highest ever peak player count of 259,646 on Steam in 2025 - Over **450,000,000** Game Sessions - Over **5,800,000** unique players - Over **700,000,000** hours played - Over **37,000,000** Drops claimed players - **28,523** Workshop Submissions Here's a recap of some of the major updates we did last year: **(https://rust.facepunch.com/news/primitive) **We kickstarted the year with Primitive, introducing a new game mode and a whole load of new items and raiding methods **[The Crafting Update](https://rust.facepunch.com/news/crafting-update) **The Crafting Update added advanced cooking, farming (chickens, bees), new workbenches, Armor and more **[Premium Servers](https://rust.facepunch.com/news/premium-servers) **Premium Servers introduce a new server type, aiming to reduce cheating and improve fair, competitive play. **[Jungle Update](https://rust.facepunch.com/news/jungle-update) **One of the biggest updates of the year saw the Jungle biome added with climbable trees, deadly tigers and crocodiles, new monuments, boomerangs, blowpipes, and more! **[Friends with Benefits](https://rust.facepunch.com/news/friends-with-benefits) **Friends with benefits was one of many updates which saw sweeping QOL updates, introducing party system and snappable deployables to name a few **[Meta Shift](https://rust.facepunch.com/news/meta-shift) **Meta shift was one of several updates which made sweeping changes to progression. Introducing Blueprint fragments, custom crosshair and changes to monument puzzles **Quality Of Life **Over 400 QOL changes **Menu Overhauls **Sweeping changes to main menu, server browser and store. Alongside a metric ton of improvements and bug fixes. Rust continues to be a labour of love from all of us at Facepunch, and we couldn't have done it without your passion and feedback. Thank you for your continued support, be it playing the game, telling friends, and engaging and communicating with us. We've very much enjoyed everything we've worked on for the game this year. ##### LOOKING FORWARD What’s in store for 2026? Consistency! Continued guaranteed monthly updates on the first Thursday of every month, alongside regular fixes, quality-of-life enhancements, improvements, and exciting holiday events. This year, Rust Mobile will be released globally. We're very excited to see how this performs, all early indicators are showing very promising signs. If you're intresting to learn more about Rust mobile or participate in the next closed beta next, visit: [rustmobile.com](https://rustmobile.com) ##### **Next Month** Next month, on February 5th, we'll finally be shipping the Naval update. The update will include player-made boats, which will allow players to travel to the deep sea, explore new islands, and monuments with new AI encounters. This is going to be a massive update. ##### **Looking ahead** Alongside next month’s Naval update, we’ve got a huge amount of content either planned or already in active development for 2026. You can expect to see new monuments, including apartment complex. We’re also working on new player models and animations, which will improve both how characters look and move. The player update will unblock one of the biggest hurdles to player customisation. We’re expanding the ecosystem with new animals, cows and sheep, for example, alongside a proper animal breeding system. This opens up some interesti _[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/252490/view/507348444540570069]_