No Man’s Sky Hits 10 Years With Nearly 40 Free Updates
Hello Games says the sandbox has grown through nearly 40 major free updates featuring pets, mechs, living ships, expeditions, settlements, exocraft, base building, and multiple world overhauls, while Sean Murray has teased COSMOS after the game reached its highest player numbers since launch in 2026.
No Man’s Sky is marking its 10th anniversary on August 10, 2026, with Xbox Travellers joining the wider community for a decade of discovery across its ever-growing galaxy. In an anniversary message on Xbox Wire, Hello Games looked back at the game’s small beginnings and the ideas that shaped its strange, colorful universe.
Sean Murray, Hello Games’ co-founder and CEO, also thanked players for staying with No Man’s Sky through its difficult launch and decade of free content.
The project started with just four people working from a tiny studio. Hello Games says the team remains relatively small, even as the scale of No Man’s Sky has grown far beyond those early ambitions. Many people who worked on the original release are still at the studio.
Science-fiction book covers helped inspire the studio’s vision. Rather than focus only on military conflict in space, Hello Games wanted to build a galaxy filled with color, variety, and unexpected life. The central idea was simple: wake up on a planet no one had seen before, then travel seamlessly from its surface toward distant stars and unfamiliar worlds.
No Man’s Sky debuted on PS4 in North America on August 9, 2016, before reaching Europe on August 10. Hello Games later brought the game to PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Switch, and Switch 2.
The first release received mixed reactions because several features players expected were not available at launch. Hello Games spent the years since then expanding the game through post-launch additions while continuing to build out its original spacefaring idea.
Hello Games also marked the milestone with a 10th-anniversary trailer.
A galaxy for every kind of Traveller
The game’s universe supports very different ways to play. Some Travellers can enjoy the quiet of a distant planet, while others can build bases with friends and create memories together. Sean Murray says millions of players have made the galaxy their home, building communities, making friends, and creating custom ships along the way.
Players who want danger can prepare their multi-tools and starship fleets for battles against pirates and Sentinels. Those who prefer a calmer trip through the stars can avoid conflict and focus on discovery, construction, or simply seeing what waits on the next planet.
Nearly 40 major updates later
Over the past 10 years, Hello Games has added pets, mechs, living ships, expeditions, settlements, exocraft, expanded base building, and several major changes to the game’s worlds. Those additions have helped turn the original spacefaring concept into a much broader sandbox without abandoning its focus on curiosity and personal adventure.
Sean Murray also said the game reached its highest player numbers since launch during 2026. No Man’s Sky has additionally won an award at The Game Awards and a BAFTA award for Best Evolving Game.
Even after a decade, players have discovered less than 1% of the planets in No Man’s Sky, according to Murray.
Hello Games teases COSMOS and continues work on Light No Fire
Looking ahead, Murray said Hello Games was working on its next game, Light No Fire, while also planning more for No Man’s Sky. He teased an upcoming update titled COSMOS, though the letter did not include a release date or feature details.
Hello Games says it hopes the journey continues for as long as the team enjoys creating new additions and the community remains passionate about playing them. For now, the anniversary gives Travellers a chance to look back at how far the game has come—and how much room its galaxy still has.
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No Man's Sky
Developed by Hello Games
No Man's Sky is an action-adventure survival game set in a procedurally generated universe containing over 18 quintillion planets. Players explore star systems, gather resources, trade with alien species, and upgrade their equipment while following an overarching narrative involving a mysterious entity called the Atlas. The game is built around four pillars: exploration, survival, combat, and trading. Since its 2016 launch, it has received numerous free updates adding multiplayer, base building, fleet management, and virtual reality support.
- Genre Shooter, Simulator, Adventure, Indie, Arcade
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation VR2, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation VR, PC (Microsoft Windows), SteamVR, PlayStation 5, Mac, Oculus Rift, Xbox One
- Perspective First person, Third person, Virtual Reality
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release August 9, 2016
- Publisher 505 Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Hello Games
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