War Thunder has a second live story worth tracking today, and this one is not another maintenance patch. Gaijin has opened the second phase of Closed Beta Testing for War Thunder Infantry, with the clearest hook being a new 128-player Domination test and a separate 40-player fallback mode for the periods when the larger format is offline.
That split is the part that makes this rollout useful, not just loud. Gaijin is trying to scale the mode up fast, but it is also saying out in the open that the biggest version may only run in limited windows and can be taken down if the live test breaks under real player load.
What changed in War Thunder Infantry’s second test phase
The official announcement lays out two Domination formats. The headline mode is a 64 vs 64 battle with 128 players fighting over three capture points. Gaijin says that version will be available only for limited periods, and that it may be pulled offline if technical problems show up once the mode is under real public load.
The backup format is smaller and simpler: 20 vs 20 on a single capture point, for a total of 40 players. That mode is meant to stay available when the 128-player version is inactive. In plain terms, Gaijin is not betting the whole test on one giant battle size. It is giving itself a fallback that keeps the phase running even if the bigger experiment turns messy.
The player-loading rules changed too. Both new formats are built around solo players rather than pre-made squads, with the game automatically building teams of up to four people. If a lobby does not have enough real players, bots can still fill the empty slots. That is a practical design choice, because a 128-player headline sounds great in a trailer line, but it means less if the queue structure collapses the moment real population dips.
Gaijin also added a more flexible spawn system. Players can still drop in at a respawn point, but now they can also choose to spawn near a squadmate. The catch is clear enough: spawning near your squad is faster, but unlike a base spawn it does not come with a short safety window.
Why the rollout structure matters more than the headline number
There is a new location here, too: Al-Massa. The phase also adds new infantry weapons, class selection and weighting changes, UI and audio improvements, and limits on how many armored vehicles of one type can appear at the same time. Gaijin gives one concrete example, saying infantry battles will cap each team at no more than 10 ground vehicles of a single type at once.
Those are real additions, but the sharper story is still the launch structure. The official post reads like a studio trying to push War Thunder Infantry forward without pretending every technical risk is already solved. A 128-player test is the marketing line. The 40-player fallback, limited availability warning, and explicit mention of live stability concerns are the more useful lines for players.
That also helps separate this from today’s already-published War Thunder patch coverage on GameGuideDog. The earlier story was a bugfix and balance-cleanup piece. This one is a mode-scale test with clear session-design implications: bigger battles when the servers hold, smaller matches when they do not, and a system built around solo players being folded into squads automatically.
What players should and should not assume yet
This is still a beta-phase story, so restraint matters. The official materials are strong enough to say the second phase is real, public-facing, and mechanically broader than phase one. They are not strong enough to claim the 128-player version is already stable, always available, or widely loved.
Early reaction is still narrow and thread-local. That makes this a rollout piece, not a “players are buzzing” story. During final drafting verification, Steam’s official current-player endpoint showed 56,232 people in War Thunder. That is enough scale to make an infantry-phase test worth tracking, but not enough evidence on its own to fake a verdict on how successful this round will be.
If you want more GameGuideDog coverage after this one, browse our gaming section, check the latest English articles, read today’s earlier War Thunder 2.55.0.27 patch story, or revisit the older War Thunder 2.55.0.21 update breakdown.
The short version is straightforward. War Thunder Infantry’s second test phase matters because Gaijin is not just adding a few systems around the edges. It is stress-testing a much bigger battle format, keeping a smaller fallback ready, and showing exactly where the risk still sits.