Black Desert Online (Korean: 검은사막) is a sandbox-oriented fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Korean video game developer Pearl Abyss and originally published for Microsoft Windows in 2015.

The combat in Black Desert Online is action based, requiring manual aiming and free movement similar to those found in third-person shooters.

[12] Localized weather will include events such as temporary fog, which players may exploit to launch surprise attacks on rival guild structures.

During the night some non-player characters (NPCs) will become unavailable as they return home and the monsters will drop more loot.

[16][17] Black Desert Online takes place in a high fantasy setting and revolves around the conflict between two rival nations, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom of Valencia.

This all changed when the Black Death started spreading via merchants from Valencia, in an area east of Mediah that controlled trading.

Eventually, the three of the main areas made an alliance and began a war that lasted for 30 years; with Mediah profiting the most by harvesting black stones and trading it to the others.

[19] Black Desert Online currently has 29 classes available of which are the Warrior, Ranger, Sorceress, Berserker, Tamer, Musa, Maehwa, Valkyrie, Kunoichi, Ninja, Wizard, Witch, Striker, Mystic, Lahn, Archer, Dark Knight, Shai, Guardian, Hashashin, Nova, Sage, Corsair, Drakania, Woosa, Maegu, Scholar, Dosa and DeadEye.

[21][18] After agreeing a Japanese publishing deal with GameOn Japan on 8 September 2012 Pearl Abyss began releasing details of the game to the public.

[38] The new classes called the Musa, the Maehwa, the Kunoichi and the Ninja were released for play in 2016,[39] followed by the Dark Knight[40] and the Striker[41] in 2017, the Lahn in 2018,[42] and the Shai in 2019.

An updated PC version retitled Black Desert Remastered, featuring new visuals and new audio, was released on 22 August 2018.

Pearl Abyss has apologized to Russian players and announced they would self-publish in Russia when their own localization efforts were completed.

[46] In April 2018, Pearl Abyss announced that it would be changing service providers on North American servers to improve stability.

[49][50] The Xbox One version, simply titled Black Desert, was revealed during Microsoft's E3 2017 press conference.

[58] In April 2016, the publisher Kakao Games announced that Black Desert Online had achieved sales of 400,000 copies in its first month on the European and North American markets and was showing an average of 100,000 concurrent users.