Game of Thrones officially gets a brand-new free release this week
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Published Jul 14, 2026, 4:55 PM EDT
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Fifteen years have passed since the last novel in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series hit shelves. In the meantime, as fans await the release of The Winds of Winter, the planned penultimate book in the series, a tremendous amount of Game of Thrones media has been released. Since July 2011, when A Dance with Dragons was published, the Game of Thrones franchise has seen eleven seasons of television across three shows, a 24-issue comic book series, another 32-issue comic book series, and video games for practically all platforms.
This week, Westeros’ biggest video game is getting its biggest update to date. Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, an open-world Game of Thrones RPG released last year, is releasing its Season 1 update tomorrow.
The update, officially titled “The North Bannerman Qualifiers: Frost and Steel.” It adds a tournament of champions, where players align themselves with a Great House — Umber, Hornwood, or Manderly — and are ranked against other players in their House. A new battle mode, Burning Battle Spirit, allows for the release of ultimate attacks through accumulated energy, called Battle Spirit.
The tournament of champions is set against an invasion of the coastlines of Westeros by the seafaring Ironborn. Rather than launching an all-out war, the update’s description says “the Northerners have chosen to counterattack in their own way,” putting forward “bannermen” to fight for honor.
Released in May 2025, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is an open-world live-service action RPG. Your character is an illegitimate child of House Tyre, attempting to raise your house’s political profile and assist the Night Watch against the looming threat of White Walkers beyond the wall. Taking place parallel to the television series, you can interact with characters like Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister, and Ramsay Bolton.
If action RPGs like Kingsroad aren’t up your alley, you may want to keep an eye out for Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, an upcoming real-time strategy title that will be released this year for Windows PC. Otherwise, if you want a game that feels as much like the TV show as possible, you can go back and play 2014’s Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series.
If you’re looking for a sprawling, action-forward Game of Thrones experience, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad is available for free on Android, iOS, and Windows PC.