Ace Combat 8 Flies Into 2026's Top Ranks and Becomes the Series' Fastest Seller
Seven years after Skies Unknown, Bandai Namco's flight series returned with a Toronto-inspired capital, new cloud technology and a 99% critic approval rating. It also passed a million copies in a week.
The city of Theve does not exist, but you may recognise it. Look closely and you will spot a version of Toronto's CN Tower, Ontario Place and the city's island airport. Bandai Namco built the fictional capital of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve on the real Canadian city, at full 1:1 scale, so pilots could feel the thrill of flying freely over it.
The game launched on October 2, 2026 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, the ninth main Ace Combat game and the first since Skies Unknown in 2019. On October 9, Bandai Namco announced it had sold more than 1 million copies worldwide, making it the fastest-selling game in the series' 30-year history.
A war in Strangereal
Like most of the series, Wings of Theve is set in Strangereal, a fictional world with its own countries and wars. The year is 2029, ten years after the events of Skies Unknown. The Republic of Sotoa invades the Federation of Central Usea, using orbital weapons called the Tonitrus Spear and giant railgun-armed land battleships. The Federation loses most of its territory, including its capital, Theve.
You play a silent pilot who joins Joker Flight aboard the carrier Endurance and inherits the callsign "Rex" from a fallen commander. The legend of the "Wings of Theve", a lone pilot said to have defended the capital's evacuation, is used as wartime propaganda, and part of the story is about what is true behind it.
New clouds, more planes
The new studio behind the game, Bandai Namco Aces, was set up in 2022 as a joint venture between Bandai Namco and ILCA. Series producer Kazutoki Kono leads the project, which is built in Unreal Engine 5. The team said it had three pillars: photorealistic skies, aerial combat and a heroic story.
The skies come first. A new in-house rendering technology called Cloudly creates realistic clouds and weather that react to what is happening, and you can track enemy contrails and engine smoke to make tactical decisions. More than 30 real and fictional aircraft are split into four categories, including electronic warfare planes, and for the first time you can equip two special weapons at once, at the cost of payload. A tech tree unlocks planes, weapons and parts.
There is also Ace Combat Online, described as the series' largest online mode, with player-versus-player and co-op battles, a battle pass and a mercenary avatar.
The reviews: a near-perfect approval rating
Critics were almost unanimous. Wings of Theve scored 88 on Metacritic for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S and 86 for PC, and a remarkable 99% of critics recommended it on OpenCritic. The Guardian gave it 5/5, PC Gamer 92/100, and IGN, Destructoid and Shacknews 9/10.
Critics praised the flying, visuals, sound and music. The story was more divisive: some enjoyed the melodrama and characters, while others criticised slow pacing, heavy exposition and cutscenes that ask you to press buttons without really letting you play. Ace Combat Online drew mixed reviews for short matches and a grindy progression system.
What's next
Bandai Namco has more to come. A four-part live-action prequel web series, Ace Combat 8: Hour Zero, stars Josh Holloway, Brandon Routh and Tamlyn Tomita, and pre-order customers received a modern port of the 2006 PS2 game Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.
For a series that once seemed to live in the shadow of military shooters, the message is clear: fans waited seven years and showed up in record numbers. For the rest of 2026's big releases, see our AAA year so far.