Asphalt 8: Airborne: A Complete Player's Guide

By Nham Vu · Updated July 2026

Asphalt 8: Airborne is a 2013 arcade racing game developed by Gameloft Barcelona and published by Gameloft, the eighth main entry in the long-running Asphalt series. I've put more hours into this game than I'd like to admit, mostly because it nails something a lot of racers miss: it never pretends to be a simulator. Every track has a ramp, a shortcut, or a barrel roll waiting to be found, and that arcade DNA is exactly why it's stuck around for over a decade.

It's still active on Android, iOS, and Microsoft Windows, with the current build sitting around 4 GB depending on your platform. What follows is a practical look at how the game plays now, what's changed, and where new racers tend to trip up.

What Is Asphalt 8: Airborne?

Asphalt 8: Airborne is an arcade-style racing game built around aerial stunts, nitro boosts, and licensed cars rather than strict lap-time realism. Gameloft's pitch was always speed over precision: barrel rolls, 360 spins, and mid-air flips all feed a stunt meter that refills your nitro, which in turn is the actual skill ceiling of the game once you get past the first few career chapters.

The car roster spans real manufacturers, from everyday sports cars up to hypercar-tier machines, and Gameloft has kept adding vehicles and events well past launch. What trips up new players is treating it like a driving sim; the physics reward aggressive drifting and nitro management far more than careful braking.

Is Asphalt 8 the Same as Asphalt 8: Airborne?

Yes, Asphalt 8 and Asphalt 8: Airborne refer to the same game. Gameloft shortened the storefront name to just "Asphalt 8" on some platforms over the years, but it's the identical title with its full name, Asphalt 8: Airborne, still used in official materials and store listings. If you see both names side by side in search results or app stores, you're not missing a separate release.

What Platforms Can You Play Asphalt 8: Airborne On?

Asphalt 8: Airborne runs on Android, iOS, and Microsoft Windows, making it one of the more widely ported entries in the series. Progress syncing works through a Gameloft account if you want to move between a phone and a Windows machine, which is handy if you play mobile during commutes and switch to a bigger screen at home.

The platform list breaks down roughly like this.

• Android (Google Play)
• iOS (App Store)
• Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Store)
• Earlier console ports existed historically on some regional storefronts, though the actively supported versions today are mobile and Windows

How Do You Download Asphalt 8: Airborne?

Asphalt 8: Airborne is available through each platform's official store: Google Play for Android, the App Store for iOS, and the Microsoft Store for Windows. The install size sits around 4 GB, so it's worth being on Wi-Fi rather than a mobile data plan the first time you pull it down, since it also downloads additional content packs after the initial install.

For Windows specifically, the Microsoft Store listing is the straightforward route rather than hunting for third-party installers, which tend to be outdated or bundled with junk you don't want.

Is Asphalt 8: Airborne Playable Offline on PC?

Asphalt 8: Airborne on PC supports offline career races, but multiplayer, leaderboards, and some live events require an internet connection. In practice, the single-player campaign and most car collection events can be tackled without Wi-Fi, which makes it a decent option for travel, but don't expect season-specific online modes to load without connectivity.

If your goal is purely the career mode and car garage, offline works fine on both PC and mobile. Anything tied to real-time rankings or head-to-head races needs you online.

How Do You Play Asphalt 8: Airborne With Friends?

Asphalt 8: Airborne supports multiplayer racing over an internet connection rather than requiring local Wi-Fi, so friends in different locations can race together as long as both have data or broadband access. This matters a lot for players asking how to play with friends without being on the same local network: you don't need to be in the same room or router range, just online at the same time through the game's matchmaking or club features.

A few things make multiplayer smoother in my experience.

• Join or form a club to queue with the same people repeatedly instead of relying on random matchmaking
• Keep your car tier reasonably close to your friends' to avoid one-sided races
• Use a stable connection, since dropped packets during a stunt-heavy race cause visible rubber-banding

What Beginners Should Know Before Their First Races

New players do best in Asphalt 8: Airborne by treating nitro as the core resource rather than a bonus. Filling your stunt meter through drifting, near-misses, and jumps, then unleashing nitro in a straightaway, is the difference between finishing mid-pack and taking first. The best players I've seen barely touch the brake at all; they let the car's momentum and nitro timing do the steering.

Career mode is the right place to start since it drip-feeds new cars and events at a manageable pace, and it teaches track layouts before online races throw you into unfamiliar competition. Don't sink your early currency into the flashiest car in the garage either; a mid-tier vehicle you've actually upgraded beats a stock hypercar you can't afford to maintain.