Nightly or stable: which Horizon should you play?

Short answer: play the Nightly, because that’s the only channel Horizon has. Since 23 October 2026 the project ships one build to everyone, the launcher installs each new one by itself, and there is no separate “stable” track to switch to. What you can do is pin an older build by hand on the launcher’s Versions page, and that’s worth doing in a few specific situations covered below.

What “Nightly” means in Horizon

The name suggests a risky overnight build, but in Horizon the Nightly is simply the current version: the latest Horizon, plus a few changes the team picked to try before they are merged. Every change players can see is released automatically after it merges, so several can come out in one day. The game shows which one you run, for example “Nightly 2026-10-28 · 9b772b2”, and that string is what bug reports should quote.

Before a Nightly goes out:

• the game has to start and draw a world on the project’s test machine (the smoke test);
• nothing is published while any issue labelled release-blocker is open;
• each build is signed for its own date and commit, so an older Nightly can’t be served as tonight’s.

That’s a real gate, but a narrow one. The security notes say it outright: with a single channel there’s no longer a 6-hour beta, and a change reaches every player within minutes of merging. Most regressions get fixed just as fast, but you will occasionally meet one.

What the launcher does by default

• It checks for a new Nightly when it starts and every 30 minutes while open.
• With Install new versions automatically on (the default), it installs the new build and moves you to it if you were on the newest version. Worlds stay where they are, in the game folder.
• An older Nightly is deleted once nothing plays it. Versions you installed by hand stay until you remove them.

If your launcher still shows a “Nightly builds” setting or an “Updates” choice, it predates the change. After its next self-update the setting disappears and you’re on the single channel.

When it makes sense to pin an older version

Open Versions, install the build you want, and choose it for Play. Good reasons:

1. A regression hit you. Something worked yesterday and doesn’t today. Install the previous Nightly (the page keeps the last week’s), keep playing, and report the bug with both version strings: “works on X, broken on Y” is gold for maintainers.
2. A native mod is pinned. Many community native mods are tested against one Nightly and its commit. The launcher handles most of this on its own: it builds a mod on the game you play when that game is new enough, otherwise on the commit the mod was tested on, and a normal Build stays on the Horizon your instance already plays. Only Rebuild on Horizon {version} moves it forward. Pinning the instance keeps a known-good mod set stable.
3. You’re running a server for friends. Servers never update on their own (more below), which is effectively pinning by default.

Bad reasons: “stable sounds safer”. An old build has the bugs that newer ones fixed, and it may be missing hook points that current mods need. One example from the registry: Freecam+ notes it won’t work on v0.2.97 because that release has no native hook points, while it works on the Nightlies.

Numbered releases: what the numbers mean

Since 0.2, every release has a number: 0.2.0, then 0.2.1, 0.2.2 and so on. The game and the launcher are both on 0.2 but count separately, so you can play Horizon 0.2.7 with launcher 0.2.3. A bigger step like 0.3 will be announced when it comes. Releases before 0.2 were named after the day they came out (such as 2026.10.19.15), and every 0.2 release is newer than all of them. When we checked GitHub on 9 November 2026, the repository had 319 releases across the launcher, the game and the Nightlies; the latest launcher was 0.2.56. Our releases page lists them with readable changelogs.

Nightlies rotate: they leave GitHub after seven days, and Nightlies published before per-version signing was introduced can no longer be installed by current launchers.

Servers: nothing changes until you say so

horizon-server checks for a new release a minute after it starts and every 6 hours, and only tells you. horizon-server update downloads the current Nightly, checks its signature, backs up the world, switches, and goes back by itself if the new game doesn’t come up within five minutes. horizon-server rollback returns to the previous release by hand. A server still on a dated release may wrongly think it’s up to date; run horizon-server update --version v0.2.0 once. Details in how to host a Horizon server.

Our recommendation

Stay on the current Nightly with automatic updates on. Keep an eye on releases if you play with native mods, and pin an instance only for the reasons above. If an update breaks your game, the fixes in Horizon launch errors and a quick switch to yesterday’s build will get you playing again. New installs start in how to install Horizon, and native mod builds are covered in how to install mods.