Web API

ARK's Web API is used by the client to get a list of official servers and display news. Each endpoint can be accessed by sending a simple HTTP GET request. HTTPS is not supported. Some endpoints are suffixed by a ".ini" extension, but their content is not in the format of an INI file. Endpoint names are case sensitive. All API endpoints are hosted on the official ARK server at arkdedicated.com.

version

Returns the current latest game version as a simple string. Example: the URL http://arkdedicated.com/version returns 345.19 for game version of 345.19.

version/major

If you are only interested in the major version number, use this http://arkdedicated.com/version/major instead. Example: 345. Game versions that differ in minor version numbers but share the same major version number should be compatible (in terms of connecting, mods, save games, etc.).

officialserverstatus.ini

This endpoint contains the text typically displayed in the upper left hand corner of the in-game ark server browser, and displays the health and current version of all the official Ark servers. The return text is formatted in ArkML.

Example: the URL http://arkdedicated.com/officialserverstatus.ini returns:

ARK Official Server Network Status: <RichColor Color="0, 1, 0, 1">Healthy (v223.2)</>

officialtributeenabled.html

http://arkdedicated.com/officialtributeenabled.html

This endpoint specifies is tribute (transfers) are enabled on the Official Server Network.

news.ini

http://arkdedicated.com/news.ini

This endpoint contains the text typically displayed in the upper right hand corner of Ark's main menu, and displays news regarding Ark. The return text is also formatted in ArkML. The text is not processed any further by the game, but from current observations additional data can be parsed from it.

After parsing the ArkML, each news entry is separated by two carriage return line feeds (\r\n\r\n). Each entry begins with a date string, followed by a colon, and ends with the entry's text. The date string consists of the full month name followed by a space and then the day of the month with no leading characters. In strftime format, the date can be represented as %B %-d.

officialservers.ini

http://arkdedicated.com/officialservers.ini

This endpoint contains the list of official server hosts. The IP address of each server host is listed on a separate line, followed by a double forward slash (//) and then a short server name. Up to four game servers run on each official host. The query ports for each game server are on Steam's standard server port, plus 2, plus 4, and plus 6 (27015, 27017, 27019, 27021). See the server query protocol page to learn how to get information from them.

*This end-point is not used directly by the game.

globaladmins.txt

http://arkdedicated.com/globaladmins.txt

This endpoint contains the list of official server admins.

globaladmins.txt (Snail Games)

http://arksnail.snail.com/globaladmins.txt

This endpoint contains the list of official server admins on servers Snail Games manages.

conquestbanlist.txt

http://arkdedicated.com/conquestbanlist.txt

This endpoint contains the list of accounts that are globally banned from the official conquest server network.

*This end-point has been said to not be updated anymore.

xboxbanlist.txt

http://arkdedicated.com/xboxbanlist.txt

This endpoint contains the list of accounts that are globally banned from the official server network on Xbox.

ps4banlist.txt

http://arkdedicated.com/ps4banlist.txt

This endpoint contains the list of accounts that are globally banned from the official server network on PS4.

banlist.txt

http://arkdedicated.com/banlist.txt

This endpoint contains the list of accounts that are globally banned from the official server network.

dynamicconfig.ini

http://arkdedicated.com/dynamicconfig.ini

This endpoint contains the multipliers used for Official Evolution events.

pcnotification.html

http://arkdedicated.com/pcnotification.html

http://arkdedicated.com/notification.html^{(xbox)[citation needed]}

http://arkdedicated.com/ps4notification.html

http://arkdedicated.com/switchnotification.html

Platform-specific endpoints for in-game server-wide announcements.

Ark Mobile

Ark Mobile uses the same domain to get official servers. Instead of being in ini format, this file is formatted in JSON.

http://arkdedicated.com/mobile/cache/officialserverlist.json

This endpoint provides a list of all official servers. Each server in the list uses the following JSON format.

{
  "AllowDownloadItems":-2084667264,
  "Region":"NA",
  "IP":"34.241.86.216",
  "NPEnvironment":"[2a05:d018:b8b:6f00:cca0:866e:7335:8be]",
  "MinorBuildId":1,
  "MaxPlayers":60,
  "ClusterId":"{\r\n\t\"NumReservedSlots\": 60,\r\n\t\"NumReservedPlayers\": 1,\r\n\t\"ClusterId\": \"ark\",\r\n\t\"Difficulty\": \"Hard\",\r\n\t\"Mode\": \"PVE\",\r\n\t\"REGION\": \"EU\"\r\n}",
  "MapName":"M_TheIsland",
  "SessionIsPve":false,
  "NPSessionId":"26",
  "AllowDownloadChars":75,
  "NumPlayers":1,
  "LastUpdated":1535927396441,
  "BuildId":159,
  "Port":7810,
  "DayTime":"21:46",
  "GameMode":"ARK",
  "Name":"Gauntlet (PVE-Hard-EU)"
}

If NumReservedSlots is equal to the maximum number of players, the client will make this server appear as a premium-only server. Changing the cluster ID away from "ark" will cause the server to not appear in the client. It is unknown what AllowDownloadItems, NPEnvironment, or AllowDownloadChars means.

Xbox

http://arkdedicated.com/xbox/cache/officialserverlist.json

http://arkdedicated.com/xbox/cache/unofficialserverlist.json

These endpoints contain JSON arrays of objects for each official and unofficial Xbox server.

Example object with IPs and domains stripped:

{
  "AllowDownloadItems":1,
  "IP":"192.0.2.1",
  "Service":"https://example.com:89",
  "MinorBuildId":1,
  "MaxPlayers":70,
  "ClusterId":"XboxPrimitivePlusPVE",
  "Sandbox":"RETAIL",
  "MapName":"TheCenter",
  "SessionIsPve":1,
  "LatencyPort":9996,
  "AllowDownloadChars":1,
  "NumPlayers":3,
  "LastUpdated":1539545767997,
  "BuildId":1777,
  "Port":9992,
  "SearchHandle":"ec008fff-b668-4d34-88c6-f6c84c10334b",
  "DayTime":"19754",
  "Legacy":1,
  "GameMode":"GameMode_PrimitivePlus_C",
  "Name":"PVE-EU-XboxPrimitivePlus24",
  "SearchTags":["crossplayallowxbox"]
}

Nintendo Switch

http://arkdedicated.com/switch/cache/officialserverlist.json

http://arkdedicated.com/switch/cache/unofficialserverlist.json

Playstation

http://arkdedicated.com/sotfps4/cache/officialserverlist.json

http://arkdedicated.com/ps4/cache/unofficialserverlist.json