Arc Raiders beats its own Steam player record just a few hours after launch to become one of the most popular extraction shooters

Arc Raiders has seemingly done what it set out to do, becoming the biggest extraction shooter outside of Tarkov. The game officially arrived on PC and consoles on Thursday, and people clearly showed up for it everywhere.

Not only has this been a successful launch, the numbers are also bigger than the game’s own previous record.

Arc Raiders has been in various forms of closed tests for well over a year, but its first public – and freely available – beta was October’s server slam, which offered a tiny portion of the game’s content. The test attracted 189,668 concurrent players on Steam at its peak, which is respectable, but you could definitely see room for growth at launch.

Well, launch has now arrived, and with it, the growth everyone expected. Much like Battlefield 6 broke its own beta records with the official launch, Arc Raiders has now done the same. On Steam, the PvPvE extraction shooter peaked at 264,673 concurrent players (via SteamDB), which is a very decent jump over the server slam.

Player sentiment remains positive, with the overall Steam user review rating currently sitting at Very Positive, based on over 7,500 reviews. Given the game’s momentum and positive word of mouth, Arc Raiders has a shot at raising its peak concurrent once again over the weekend.

The game has, of course, been at the top of Steam’s global Top Sellers chart, having jumped two places this week compared to last. Overall, Arc Raiders has spent six weeks in the top 100.

This peak concurrent is especially good news for developer Embark, too, as it beat the studio’s free-to-play shooter The Finals, which peaked at 242,619 at its launch in December, 2023. A paid game in a somewhat niche subgenre overtaking a free-to-play arena shooter is no easy feat.

Before you jump into this latest hit, we highly recommend first reading our informative Arc Raiders tips. Even if you know your way around extraction shooters, there’s a lot here the game does differently that’s well worth learning about.