DayZ Badlands launches on Thursday, October 15, 2026, alongside the free DayZ Update 1.30, but as of October 13 Bohemia Interactive has not announced the hour it goes live. If Bohemia repeats the launch-day plan it used for its last expansion, DayZ Frostline, PC official servers come back online around 8:00 AM Eastern (14:00 CEST) and console servers around 9:00 AM Eastern (15:00 CEST).
The date itself is locked in. Bohemia announced it in a Steam post on August 27, repeated it on its official X account the next day, and confirmed again in its October 2 price announcement that every core feature is “on track for the October 15 release.” The DayZ Badlands store page on Steam lists the same date. What follows is everything confirmed about launch timing on each platform as of October 13, the time-zone math for the most likely schedule, and what to do before the servers come back.
Release Time by Platform
| Platform | Date | Time | Status as of October 13 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam (PC) | October 15 | Not announced | Store page live, price not shown yet |
| Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Xbox on PC | October 15 | Not announced | Store listing live and dated October 15 |
| PlayStation | Not dated | Not announced | No PlayStation Store listing yet |
Two clues point to a launch during the European day, which means morning in the Americas. Bohemia’s Creator Program, which let approved streamers play from October 8, runs until “the morning of release day on October 15,” and streamers cannot publish their footage until that embargo lifts. And Microsoft’s store data for the Badlands listing closes its pre-launch state at 11:00 UTC on October 15, which is 7:00 AM Eastern. Neither is an announced unlock time, so treat them as signals rather than a schedule.
Expected Release Time in Every Time Zone
Bohemia’s official launch-day post for DayZ Frostline on October 15, 2024 laid out the plan it used last time: all official servers went down in the morning, PC official servers were scheduled to come back at 14:00 CEST, and console servers were set to follow at 15:00 CEST. Both the Xbox Store and PlayStation Store listings for Frostline record its release at 13:00 UTC, the same hour Bohemia set for the console servers.
If Badlands follows that pattern, here is when it would go live. Europe and North America are both still on summer time on October 15, so these conversions hold:
| City (time zone) | PC servers (14:00 CEST) | Console servers (15:00 CEST) |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles (PDT) | 5:00 AM, Oct 15 | 6:00 AM, Oct 15 |
| Denver (MDT) | 6:00 AM, Oct 15 | 7:00 AM, Oct 15 |
| Chicago (CDT) | 7:00 AM, Oct 15 | 8:00 AM, Oct 15 |
| New York (EDT) | 8:00 AM, Oct 15 | 9:00 AM, Oct 15 |
| São Paulo (BRT) | 9:00 AM, Oct 15 | 10:00 AM, Oct 15 |
| London (BST) | 1:00 PM, Oct 15 | 2:00 PM, Oct 15 |
| Paris, Berlin and Prague (CEST) | 2:00 PM, Oct 15 | 3:00 PM, Oct 15 |
| Moscow (MSK) | 3:00 PM, Oct 15 | 4:00 PM, Oct 15 |
| India (IST) | 5:30 PM, Oct 15 | 6:30 PM, Oct 15 |
| Tokyo (JST) | 9:00 PM, Oct 15 | 10:00 PM, Oct 15 |
| Sydney (AEDT) | 11:00 PM, Oct 15 | 12:00 AM, Oct 16 |
| Auckland (NZDT) | 1:00 AM, Oct 16 | 2:00 AM, Oct 16 |
Build in some slack on console. On Frostline’s launch day, Bohemia posted that the expansion was “out now across all platforms” at 2:51 PM Eastern, alongside a warning that console players could hit server browser errors, and it only confirmed that all official console servers were accessible at 7:55 AM Eastern the following morning. A first-day delay on console is not a sign that anything is wrong with your copy.
Xbox Release Time
Microsoft has had the Badlands store listing up for months. It covers Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC through the Xbox app, carries the October 15 date, and notes that the add-on requires the DayZ base game plus an online multiplayer subscription on console. Badlands joining Xbox Series X|S, while staying on Xbox One, was announced at the ID@Xbox Showcase in October 2025.
As mentioned above, the listing’s pre-launch window ends at 7:00 AM Eastern on October 15, which suggests the add-on can be bought on Xbox from that point. Being able to buy it and being able to play it are two different things in DayZ, though: Nasdara is only playable once servers are running Update 1.30. On Frostline’s launch day, console servers were scheduled to come up an hour after PC.
PlayStation Release Time
When Bohemia revealed Badlands in June 2025, its official X announcement said the expansion was “releasing in 2026 on all platforms.” As of October 13, though, we found no Badlands listing on the PlayStation Store in the US, UK or German storefronts, where the DayZ store page still lists Frostline as its only add-on.
That does not mean PlayStation is delayed. Frostline launched on PlayStation the same day as PC and Xbox in 2024, and an add-on page can go up as late as launch day. But until Bohemia or the PlayStation Store publishes a time, PlayStation timing is unconfirmed. One more detail matters for PS5 owners: DayZ on PlayStation is sold as a PS4 game, which PS5 owners play through backward compatibility, and Frostline was sold as an add-on for that same version.
Preload and Download Size
There is no preload announced, and there is likely nothing to preload: on the Xbox Store, the Badlands add-on package is listed at about 10 MB, the same size as Frostline’s. That points to the add-on acting as an unlock, with Nasdara itself arriving inside DayZ’s own Update 1.30, which nobody can download until Bohemia releases it on launch day.
Bohemia has not published a size for Update 1.30. The practical steps:
- Free up space ahead of time. Nasdara is DayZ’s largest official map, and Bohemia says it has 400% more new custom assets than Frostline.
- Let DayZ update as soon as 1.30 appears on Steam, Xbox or PlayStation, before you try to join a server.
- If you play on community servers, expect them to need their own 1.30 update before you can join, so official servers are the safest first stop.
What Arrives With Update 1.30
Update 1.30 is free for everyone who owns DayZ, Badlands or not. Bohemia’s 1.30 Experimental announcement lists the headline changes: two motorbikes (a moped and an enduro) with new two-wheeled physics, more than 150 redrawn inventory icons, and new infected attack animations. Bohemia has also said the new code lock and the motorbikes come to every map, not just Nasdara.
Badlands owners get Nasdara on top of that, with sandstorms, rebuildable houses, new wildlife and regional gear. Radio gameplay, which uses Morse code signals to lead players to underground shelters, was held back from the Creator Program entirely, so launch day is the first time anyone outside Bohemia sees it.
The expansion costs approximately $24.99, with regional pricing possible, as covered in our DayZ Badlands price story. If you want Nasdara unspoiled, the safest window is before the creator embargo lifts on the morning of October 15, when a week of recorded footage will go up at once. Badlands is one of the biggest games coming out in October 2026, and our upcoming game releases list has everything else landing this fall.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does DayZ Badlands come out? Bohemia has not announced an hour as of October 13. The date is October 15, 2026. If it follows its Frostline plan, PC servers return around 8:00 AM Eastern (14:00 CEST) and console servers around 9:00 AM Eastern (15:00 CEST).
Is DayZ Badlands coming out on PS5 on October 15? Bohemia has said Badlands is coming to all platforms, but as of October 13 there is no PlayStation Store listing and no PlayStation date. On PlayStation, DayZ is a PS4 game that PS5 owners play through backward compatibility.
Can you preload DayZ Badlands? No preload has been announced. The add-on itself is a small unlock on Xbox, and the map arrives in DayZ’s Update 1.30, which releases on launch day.
Will DayZ servers be down on launch day? Expect it. On Frostline’s launch day, Bohemia took all official servers down in the morning and scheduled PC servers to return at 14:00 CEST, with console servers an hour later.
Do you need to update DayZ to play Badlands? Yes. Badlands launches with Update 1.30, so DayZ itself has to be on the new version before you can play on Nasdara.