Is Black Desert Online free to play?

No. Black Desert is a paid game. None of the store pages we read lists it as free to play, and each one sells it for money: the cheapest edition is £7.99 on the Xbox Store UK and about $10 on PC.

The entry price is low, though, and it isn't the only thing on sale. The rest of this page covers what each edition costs, what you can spend after that and what console players need on top.

What does Black Desert cost?

These are the prices we read on 4 November 2026. Pearl Abyss sells the same game under different edition names on PC and console.

Store	Cheapest edition	Middle edition	Top edition
Xbox Store UK	Standard, £7.99	Heroic, £31.99	Mythical, £87.99
Steam (PC)	Base game, $9.99	Explorer bundle, $39.98	Conqueror bundle, $89.97
Pearl Abyss NA/EU site (PC)	Traveler, $10	Explorer, $40	Conqueror, $90
PlayStation (US listing)	Standard, $9.99	Heroic, $39.99	Mythical, $119.99

Steam showed us a dollar price with no currency code, even when we asked for the UK store, so we can't give you its price in pounds. Check it on your own Steam account before buying. We also read PlayStation's US listing rather than its UK one.

On Pearl Abyss's own site, the Traveler Edition is just the "Game Pass", the name it gives to access to the game. That has nothing to do with Xbox Game Pass. The site says it takes effect immediately and covers both the North America and Europe servers. Explorer adds in-game items and 1,000 Pearls, and Conqueror adds more items and 4,000 Pearls. Each account can buy only one package.

What else can you buy in Black Desert?

Pearls, the game's paid currency. Steam lists "In-App Purchases", and both console stores say the game has in-game purchases that include random items. On the Xbox Store UK:

Pearls	UK price
1,000	£7.99
2,040	£15.49
3,200	£23.99
4,360	£31.99
6,600	£44.99
11,500	£73.99
13,850	£87.99

These are console Pearls, a separate currency from the PC ones. One thing they buy is the Mystery Outfit Box, a paid random item. The Black Desert page has its odds from Pearl Abyss's published list and a calculator for them.

Do you need a subscription?

None of the PC pages we read mentions one. Consoles are different. The Xbox Store UK says the game "requires online multiplayer subscription to play on console", naming Game Pass Core or Ultimate, sold separately. PlayStation's listing says "PS Plus required for online play". So a console player may be paying for that as well as the game.

PlayStation's US listing also shows Black Desert as included with PS Plus Extra. The Game Catalog varies by region, so check it on the UK store if you already subscribe.

Is there a free trial?

Possibly, but we can't tell you its terms. Pearl Abyss's NA/EU package page has a "Free Trial" link that goes to its download page, and we couldn't read that page. Pearl Abyss has also run events with free game passes, such as one called "Level Up for a Game Pass!", but its news pages wouldn't load for us, so we don't know the dates or the rules. Neither of these makes it a free-to-play game, and we didn't find either one on the Steam or console pages.

For games that are free to start, see is Guild Wars 2 free to play, which has a free core game and paid expansions, and is Old School RuneScape free to play, where most of the world sits behind membership.

How we checked

We read the Steam store page, Pearl Abyss's NA/EU package page, the Xbox Store UK and PlayStation's US game page on 4 November 2026. Prices can change, and sales are common. PlayStation's store page was showing an older sale price of $4.99 for the Standard Edition with an offer date already past, so we've used the regular $9.99. The Pearl prices on Xbox match what the PlayStation Store UK showed in September. We couldn't read PlayStation's UK listing, Steam's price in pounds, the NA/EU download page or Pearl Abyss's news notices, so nothing here rests on them beyond the notice title above.