Arc Raiders maintains strong post-launch numbers with a peak of over 250,000 concurrent players on Steam

Arc Raiders has rocked expectations on launch day, even surpassing its Server Slam Playtest, which peaked at around 190,000 players. Embark’s latest jump into the extraction shooter genre, Arc Raiders, closed the day yesterday with an all-time peak of 264,673 concurrent players on Steam.

However, this number only accounts for players on Steam. The game is also available on PC via the Epic Games Store, as well as on PS5 and Xbox Series S|X. This could potentially push multiplatform player counts past the 500,000 mark, considering the relatively low entry fee of just $39.99.

Thirty minutes into launch, Arc Raiders had crossed the 100,000 mark after going live at 5:30 am EDT/ 2:30 am PDT, making for some impressive launch numbers for Embark Studios’ second charge into the live-service genre, after The Finals.

Player counts kept climbing rapidly, zipping past 150,000, before settling at around 260,000 players, crushing its October 17 Server Slam open beta record of 189,668 players, and securing the 57th spot in Steam’s all-time concurrent list. 

Arc Raiders is currently the number one best-selling game on Steam, eclipsing newly released titles like Battlefield 6, Dispatch, and The Outerworlds 2. To put things into perspective, Arc Raiders managed to attract so many players despite its $40 price tag that it even surpassed its free-to-play title, The Finals' launch numbers, which peaked at 242,619 players.

The game currently sits with a 90% Very Positive user rating on Steam out of over 16,000 reviews, praising the deadly Arc AI that hunts down players as if they hold a grudge and the healthy and some not-so-healthy player interactions as raiders pit themselves against a post-apocalyptic world overrun by “clankers.”

Embark Studios currently plans to support the game for 10 years into the future if things keep going well for its latest paid extraction shooter. However, despite the low entry fee, some players are criticizing Arc Raiders’ current monetization practices, as some cosmetics reportedly cost half the price of the game, making it an expensive foray for gamers looking to customize the looks of their loadouts.