Alone is calling this its first-ever “World Championship ” as the survival series returns to History for Season 13. Seven countries are represented among its ten new players, and after Season 12 traveled to arid South Africa, this time around, we’re way up north again, 125 miles into the Canadian Arctic Circle. “The raw you is what you’re gonna face out there,” a contestant says of this landscape — it’s wet, cold, completely unforgiving, and probably full of bears. To survive it, to eke out a solo existence for as far as your skills and mental fortitude will take you — well, $500,000 might not be the only reward.

ALONE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “I think I might have that little bit of insanity…” “Lose your mind, find your soul…” For Alone participants, the evening before they enter the backcountry is about crafting the perfect soundbite for outdoor competition.

The Gist: Players from such countries as Australia, Slovenia, Portugal, and New Zealand are in the mix next to American and Canadian competitors on this latest installment of Alone, but the facts of what they will face are the same. In addition to provided clothing and gear, plus 65 pounds of camera equipment, participants will choose ten specific items to bring into their backcountry experience. Essentials for staying warm, or at least less wet; implements for cooking what they catch; axes and multitools to build camp; and strong and light paracord for basically everything else. And once the helicopters fly off and the boats drift away, these competitors are left with not much else. Well, besides their thoughts.

Pedrosa, 41, from Portugal, finds it rewarding to hunt for rabbit and ground squirrel. The plentiful game helps him “fight the ego” – his understanding that it will not be this easy forever. Nero, a 40-year-old Australian, sets up as many “passive” ways of finding food as he can. (He is grateful for the nutrients he sucks from the liver of an ensnared squirrel.) And Jacks, 40, a wildlife educator from New York, calls out her L’s to the camera as they happen. “I feel like I’m just wasting time!” she cries, and all she was trying to do was walk through impossibly thick mud and underbrush. Sometimes the Alone journey begins with the smallest, toughest step.  

So who will stay the longest, and win the $500k? It’s that simple on Alone, which means it’s also that difficult. But us never thinking these competitors build permanent shelters fast enough is just part of the fun in any new Alone season. Just how would you survive, if it was you out there, all by your lonesome, with one blade, a few arrows in a quiver, and 50,000 grizzly bears to keep you company?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Outlast: The Jungle is the newest season of Netflix’s Alone-adjacent survival series. While it is teams-based, having more people around doesn’t automatically make any of those people drier. And the robust international representation in Alone Season 13 speaks to the show’s global popularity. Australia is a thriving outpost for the series, and 2026-27 will see new Alone seasons in Belgium, Finland, and Denmark.  

Our Take: Eventually someone will win this season of Alone, and it will be a thrill to see how they carry the day with technical capability and personal fortitude. But there is another inevitability to Alone which is found in the dark hours between “You’re gonna have to be a tough, gritty son of a bitch to win” and the few quick beeps on a satellite phone that mark an official tap-out. For one competitor inSeason 13, this is less than 72 hours, which marks a never-less-than-fascinating main feature about this series. Alone-ers initially enter the bush fueled by boasts about balling hard and winning big cash, and none are unprepared to do this. In many cases, they don’t just know how to live off the land — living off the land is part of their real-world livelihood. Still, for a few contestants, the end is always the same, and it never gets old. After everyone is dropped off in their little inhospitable corner of the wilderness, after they secure food, water, and temporary shelter, they all sit down to…just be on Alone. To be with their thoughts. To finally understand the crushing emotional weight of this competition. And what a Season 13 Alone-er calls “the guilt of it” invariably sets in. Quick, what pocket is that sat phone in? 

The greatest lesson on Alone is not in the ways of bushcraft. It is the understanding we might have to travel to some dangerous middle of nowhere just to realize how much we need whatever is left behind. “There is not a thing in the world” – not even 500,000 big ones – “worth trading time with your family.”

Performance Worth Watching: We will be watching the performance of the nine arrows allotted to each contestant. Every one of them laments loosing an arrow at some varmint, only to miss the shot and lose the arrow, making them hungry now and possibly even hungrier later.  

Sex and Skin: Well, unless you’re talking about what’s exposed after a contestant skins the critter they caught in their trap, then no, not really. 

Parting Shot: The mental game is key out here. One guy trained his mind to always be hunting – that way he’ll never miss an opportunity. “In that moment, I will not miss the shot.”

Sleeper Star: Serendipity! Season 13 of Alone offers two early examples of how randomness can provide. A glass bottle unearthed from the wilderness can be repurposed as a fresh water canteen. And rusty nails salvaged from riverside driftwood become components in a device that will feed one player for weeks.    

Most Pilot-y Line: “It’s really easy for people to watch this show and be like ‘Oh, why didn’t she or he do that’ blah blah blah,” says Jacks Genega. “But it’s different when you’re out here, man. Your head, and everything you do, needs to be so dialed in.”  

Our Call: Stream It! Alone remains the most singular and singularly difficult-to-win unicorn in a crowded field of reality competition. Watch as Season 13 drops ten more people trained for this kind of thing into unforgiving conditions – and then watch as they are promptly challenged in ways they never expected. That $500,000 Alone grand prize might be the hardest money to win in reality television.  

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.