Quake Champions

Quake Champions is a competitive arena shooter by id Software, developed in collaboration with Saber Interactive. The game combines the fast pace, rocket jumps and precise weapon control of classic Quake arenas with 16 playable Champions, each with their own attributes and abilities.

The focus is on short, direct multiplayer duels instead of a campaign. Quake Champions explicitly draws on the gloomy world of the original Quake and the competitive arena style of Quake III Arena.

Quake Champions launched in Early Access on Steam on Aug 22, 2017. Version 1.0, the full release, came out on Aug 18, 2022.

On Sep 23, 2026, id Software fundamentally changed the ownership model: Quake Champions switched from free-to-play to a one-time purchase on Steam. Anyone who had already played the former free-to-play version keeps access without buying again.

Quake Champions is currently available exclusively for PC via Steam. The former version on the Microsoft Store was discontinued when the game switched to a purchase model on Sep 23, 2026.

Players of the former Microsoft Store version could transfer their access to Steam via a linked Bethesda.net and Steam account. For new buyers, Steam is the only remaining platform.

The core remains classic Quake: high movement speed, rocket jumps, map control and quick switching between weapons such as the Rocket Launcher, Lightning Gun and Railgun. On top of that come the Champions, each with individual attributes and active or passive abilities.

The core modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, 1v1 Duel and the team-based Sacrifice mode. The focus is clearly on online PvP and mechanical mastery of movement, weapons and arenas.

For the minimum configuration, Steam lists Windows 10 or newer, 8 GB RAM and 35 GB of free storage. Recommended are 16 GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 1080 or Radeon RX 5700, and an NVMe SSD.

The game features 16 champions with their own attributes and abilities. In this way, Quake Champions adds different playstyles to the traditional arena shooter foundation, without giving up rocket jumps, weapon pickups and map control as the core of the combat system.

Since Sept 23, 2026, Quake Champions is no longer a free-to-play game. New players buy the Steam version once. At the same time, id Software removed Platinum and Shards as virtual currencies; champions, weapon skins and cosmetics previously unlocked through these systems are available to owners of the paid version without additional in-game purchases.

The change is more than a price change: it permanently replaces the former free-to-play and microtransaction model with a classic ownership model.