Smart players are starting to build their own ARC Raiders etiquette — if you can’t loot, don’t kill — so players can extract together without getting each other botted on. You learn what to take from them and what to leave, and how those items you scavenge might help you survive the next encounter. Yesterday was its biggest day ever by DAUs (3.2M).Daily copies sold started to stabilise by early Dec, but a well-timed 20% discount across all platforms – and the holiday boost – reversed that.What a ride. Players phase through walls, skip sections of levels, and occupy areas that were never intended to be accessible. Rooftops, hidden corners, and entire off-limits zones become ambush points, made even more lethal when combined with FoV and macro-enhanced precision.
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Now, in a new interview with GamesRadar+, design lead Virgil Watkins has expanded on how the system works. “It’s a bit of a misnomer calling it aggression-based,” the developer told the outlet. He goes on to explain that Embark is going to keep tuning the way the system works, “but people aren’t far off in how they think it works.”
The Growing List of Exploits Plaguing Arc Raiders
Due to the abundance of PvE systems, the SBMM in ARC Raiders feels a lot less strict than other shooters like Black Ops 7 or Battlefield 6. You have to appreciate how reactive these robot enemies are to your shots, too. ARC Raiders was originally built as a co-op game and you can see that lineage in how much attention has been given to making enemies satisfying to fight. Shoot a rotor off a drone and they spin wildly depending on physics and momentum, before finally stabilizing themselves to return fire. Shoot off another and they spin out before crashing into the ground, sometimes going down guns-blazing. The larger enemies lose plating, spark, fizzle and smoke as you riddle them with bullets.
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By numbers, ARC Raiders is the most popular and successful extraction shooter ever made, and it’s dominating the genre. It hasn’t even dropped below 250K concurrent players since launch, according to SteamDB. Its staying power has been impressive, to say the least, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the defining game of 2026 was this third-person extraction shooter from October 2025. You could say “no two matches are alike” about plenty of online multiplayer games, and it’s a statement that is certainly true for Arc Raiders.
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Aside from simply learning the meta and how to most efficiently find resources while completing ARC Raiders’ quests, the multiplayer aspect of the game is the primary source of the community’s unwritten rules. ARC Raiders gives players all the tools for success within its moment-to-moment gameplay, but the guidelines developed by the community will help players understand the social aspect of ARC Raiders as the game grows. As such, starting off on the right foot with the other Raiders of Speranza will set players up for the best ARC Raiders experience possible. Extraction shooters like ARC Raiders are full of do’s and don’ts that evolve as the community grows, and with tests like the server slam leading up to launch, the game has already seen a set of unwritten rules for player conduct develop. While ARC Raiders doesn’t require players to follow these rules, the community at large tends to abide by them to create an environment where all players can be successful. With ARC Raiders already hitting over 300,000 players on Steam alone, it’s clear that following these rules has fostered an accessible and engaging community.
AI-driven enemy movement in Arc Raiders
Battlefield 6 has quietly become a strong performer after its own rocky history for the franchise, and it is sitting just below ARC Raiders on Steam’s charts with a peak of nearly 300,000 concurrent players around the same weekend. Now, according to Alinea Analytics, Embark Studio’s third-person extraction shooter has reached a new milestone, with over 12 million copies sold, says analyst Rhys Elliot. “So ARC Raiders passed 12M copies sold over the weekend (Alinea estimates),” Elliot wrote in a post on Bluesky.
- Other conditions are Harvest Season that offers higher yield of nature loot, or Electromagnetic Storm, Hidden Bunkers etc. to name a few.
- Collect absolutely everything at first – useful resources such as wires and springs will let you craft items later, while rare goods such as toasters and radios can be sold or recycled for scrap.
- Adding another layer to all of this is that Arc Raiders is currently developing “gangs” within the game itself.
- ARC Raiders offers players the option to take a Free Loadout of basic gear into the Rust Belt if they don’t want to risk losing their best weapons.
- Some Arc Raiders users believe that a major skill gap is forming between players, and it’s becoming a problem.
- Instead, the standout applications are reinforcement learning for enemy movement and a machine-learned TTS system for voices.
- Loot tables are adjusted, objectives move, encounter pacing gets tuned, and entire quest lines can be rewritten or cut.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race in ARC Raiders
It shows that a big-budget extraction shooter can ship with AI‑trained voices front-and-center, draw both backlash and praise, and still become a commercial success with millions of copies sold and hundreds of thousands of concurrent players. But it’s not always all about concurrent players; what also matters is the experience that those in the game are having as well, but Arc Raiders manages to ace this, too. I’ve been loving my time in Arc Raiders, as I mentioned in my Arc Raiders review, but it’s also managed to hook the rest of the PC Gamer team, with our guides writer Rory Norris proclaiming it as an “extraction shooter for people with jobs”. It has officially been one month since the release of Embark Studios’ hit extraction shooter ARC Raiders, and it is still holding its position as one of Steam’s most popular titles. According to SteamDB, ARC Raiders is still one of Steam’s top sellers, most wishlisted titles, and most played games over 30 days since its launch. The fundamental gameplay loop of ARC Raiders is to battle ARC enemies and scavenge for loot, with the ever-present threat of encountering another hostile player keeping the moment-to-moment gameplay tense.
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Most people do not pick shooters based on charts alone, but the current landscape does point to different strengths and trade‑offs. It does mean that more players than usual are either skipping a year, waiting for discounts, or trying competing games first. Every recent Call of Duty entry has sold most of its copies on PlayStation and Xbox, and Black Ops 6 was described as the biggest release in franchise history by its publisher only a year ago. That pattern makes it extremely likely that Black Ops 7 is attracting a much larger audience than its Steam count implies, especially once holiday console sales are factored in. If the cheating epidemic continues unchecked, the player base may quietly erode over time. Arc Raiders has something rare and captivating, but without meaningful anti-cheat measures and swift enforcement, the exploits dominating play could damage its reputation beyond repair.
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Arc Raiders has always stood out in the crowded field of shooters for its high-quality dynamic environments and high-stakes gameplay. Players are constantly rewarded for strategy and skill, and because of this, it’s a game that demands attention. That commitment is what has made its community so invested, and why the game is still dominating the charts months after release. Needless to say, players should have plenty of fresh reasons to jump back in soon.
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ARC is by far not the only threat topside, there are other Raiders up there, as well. Maybe you can make a friend or two, but watch your back as other Raiders are competing for the same loot. You can choose to go alone or as a squad of up to 3 players, all viable in different ways.The matchmaking will prioritize Squad vs. Squads and Solos vs. Solos.
Other users complained that Arc Raiders’ exploits are the reason the game is getting too difficult. The topic of Arc Raiders having a skill gap issue first kicked off after a video by Twitch streamer TimTheTatman went viral online. In the clip, the streamer claimed that Arc Raiders was starting to have a skill gap situation similar to Fortnite. For context, the Epic Games battle royale had a situation early on where some players became so good at building that they started to dominate other users.
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That might seem counterintuitive for a shooter, but it only makes the eventual firefights that do break out that much more action-packed. I’m sure that, after some considerable time with ARC Raiders, fortunes will shift and allow me to be a bit more brazen with my approach to engaging with combatants, but for now, it’s a reminder that sometimes, simply surviving is enough. Only time will tell if Arc Raiders’ Expedition reset wipe feature will solve this issue or just make it worse. Given how quickly players are getting good at the game, though, it does make you wonder if Embark Studios has any plans to address the widening differences between accounts.
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“We don’t do anything like skill-based matchmaking or gear-based matchmaking,” the developer said, shutting down speculation that these factors were also weighted when looking for a match. While skill-based matchmaking is often used in titles like Call of Duty (up until Black Ops 7, at least), Embark says it plans to continue with its current system and will “keep monitoring match health and player response, and tune it from there.” Originally, ARC Raiders was going to be a co-op PvE game, where players would be able to traverse a vast open world and utilize a powerful jumping mechanic to leap onto towering mechanical enemies. After hosting a closed beta test that featured this planned gameplay loop, the development team realized that there was a limit to what this game could offer players, and player interest likely wouldn’t last long after one or two play sessions. In regards to the pure PvE gameplay of this original version, ARC Raiders Creative Director Stefan Strandberg bluntly states that “it didn’t work. The larger recipe for the game wasn’t there.” A debate has broken out in the Arc Raiders community over whether the extraction shooter has a skill gap issue.
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- Originally, ARC Raiders was going to be a co-op PvE game, where players would be able to traverse a vast open world and utilize a powerful jumping mechanic to leap onto towering mechanical enemies.
- Once you know where the Arc enemies are going to be, it’s far easier to avoid them.
- Smart players are starting to build their own ARC Raiders etiquette — if you can’t loot, don’t kill — so players can extract together without getting each other botted on.
- According to fans of the extraction shooter, the multiplayer is becoming the next Fortnite in terms of skill level differences between players.
Then they walk up to a key merchant or quest-giver and are greeted by a voice that many describe as lifeless or synthetic — one that exists only because a model can now stand in for a person who might otherwise have been hired again. These players just want to enjoy Arc Raiders by focusing on the game’s incredible NPC enemies and world challenges. And finally, there are the casual players who fall into the middle and who just want to enjoy both aspects. Then there are the quests, which require you to visit points of interest and scavenge or fix specific things around each map, sending teams to similar locations where they might clash. Your raider also sends up a flare when they die, giving everyone in the match a bead on your location, but these can also be faked with remote controlled flares you can place down and use as a clever distraction. Some skirt by and avoid you entirely, others watch silently from a nearby hedge, some want to be pals, some shoot first and some will pretend to be friendly before shooting you in the back.
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In the beginning you can only access one map, the Dam Battlegrounds, but others such as the wrecked urban landscape of Buried City and the deadly industrial complex Stella Montis open up later. I’d advise sticking to the Dam until you have many hours of experience, as the other places are swarming with enemies and other players tend to be more aggressive. For your first few raids, just explore the map, get to grips with the different enemies and pop into buildings to search cabinets, lockers and desks for items. Interestingly, I’ve seen some players even argue that Arc Raiders is currently going through an identity crisis. The argument is that the extraction shooter’s player base is quickly becoming fractured between multiple groups.
With ARC Raiders’ approach, it can at least understand its own ecosystem well enough to find factors that sort players into smaller pools, allowing those with the same interests and skills to find each other easily for better experiences. This two-step approach to matchmaking may be another reason why ARC Raiders retains its audience, adding to the longevity of the game itself. This new playstyle matchmaking may also help players who constantly have to play with random teammates, perhaps giving them better allies during matches. Previous interviews have shown that SBMM is not the only method ARC Raiders uses for pairing up players, as their playstyles are also taken into account. A direct quote from art director Robert Sammelin says that the devs “analyze behavior and match accordingly,” implying that players are put together based on how they approach matches. For example, players who like PvP more are placed with each other when looking for games.
- Your raider also sends up a flare when they die, giving everyone in the match a bead on your location, but these can also be faked with remote controlled flares you can place down and use as a clever distraction.
- According to SteamDB, ARC Raiders is still one of Steam’s top sellers, most wishlisted titles, and most played games over 30 days since its launch.
- The finer details will, of course, vary from game to game, but ARC Raiders’ matchmaking is a little more complicated.
- A debate has broken out in the Arc Raiders community over whether the extraction shooter has a skill gap issue.
- It’s easy to fall prey to even one or two Wasps or Pops if players aren’t careful, so teaming up with a squad of Raiders or other solo players is usually more beneficial than fighting them.
- We also have larger machines like the Leaper, who patrols outside and poses massive threat with its destructive leap attack.
- For average players who are just trying to jump into a casual session, you can kind of see why this would quickly become problematic.
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Steam did not suddenly become less popular with Call of Duty players in a single year; instead, it suggests that some portion of the regular audience either shifted to other shooters or delayed buying in. Arc Raiders is still rated very positively at 90% with 44,834 reviews on Steam. With players proclaiming that its take on PvPvE is a solid and fun experience and rejoicing in an extraction shooter community that is talk first, shoot later, unless you’re Fraser Brown.
What’s surprising about ARC Raiders isn’t that it’s a popular game that sold well; there was a lot of hype leading up to its launch, and developer Embark Studios already had a lot of great feedback from the beta tests it ran. Its staying power and continued upward momentum are what’s surprising, as no one could have predicted it would continue to be one of the most-played games on Steam each and every day since it arrived. Overlay hacks, wallhacks, and radar tools are making opponents and loot visible through terrain, stripping exploration of all tension. Some players push this further, editing game files to remove shadows entirely, while simultaneously cranking the field of view far beyond normal limits.
Based on the CEO’s comments, solos, duos, trios, and any other pairings of players work in the same way, factoring in multiple systems at the same time. First, the game will organize players based on their estimated skill level, then it will organize them further based on their gameplay preferences. This “aggression-based matchmaking” hasn’t been in the game for very long, as it is a system the Embark CEO says has only been put in for around a week or so. However, as time goes on, this system could serve to make sure players are always getting the experience they want every time they queue up for a match. According to a recent GameRant article, an interview with Embark Studios CEO Patrick Söderlund has given more context surrounding ARC Raiders matchmaking. For starters, the game uses skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) like other shooters, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield’s recent entries.
Under a year later, its direct sequel opened at around a third of that, despite similar distribution across Steam, Battle.net, and PC Game Pass. It was thought that the 1.0 launch of Escape from Tarkov might halt ARC Raiders where it stands, but even that wasn’t enough to pull hundreds of thousands of players out of Embark’s all-new extraction shooter. It was the most searched video game of the year according to Google, and was one of Steam’s best-selling games by revenue in 2025. Not only has it hit yet another sales milestone, but it also set a new record for its daily active users, with over 3.2 million players tuning in yesterday, January 4, to spend their final hours of the winter/holiday break playing some ARC Raiders. Streamers, long-time players, and high-profile contributors openly voice frustration over how rampant these exploits have become. Frequent disruptions from cheaters affect not just individual sessions, but the emotional payoff of playing.
Your first location will be Dam Battlegrounds, a map that offers forests, swamps, old research centers and apartment buildings. We also have larger machines like the Leaper, who patrols outside and poses massive threat with its destructive leap attack. Embark confirmed it is taking action against the cheating problem in a message posted in its official Discord server. The note comes with an acknowledgement of the discussion surrounding cheaters in the community, promising that the studio is “taking this issue very seriously” as it awaits further feedback. If you play primarily on PC and care about where the energy is right now, ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6 have the momentum. If your friends are on console and live in the Call of Duty ecosystem, Black Ops 7 will likely still be the default every‑night shooter, even in a comparatively down year.
Victories feel hollow, and the satisfaction of earned progress diminishes when others achieve success through illicit means. Players worried about extraction point campers can quickly escape through Raider Hatches, provided they have a key. Embark’s public stance is that “making games without actors isn’t an end goal” and that TTS is reserved for specific contexts where flexibility and volume matter more than nuanced performance. The human acting that is recorded — especially for ensemble scenes — remains central to the studio’s narrative ambitions. As soon as you have the money, increase the size of your stash – ie the number of items you’re allowed to store.
Black Ops 7 almost certainly moves more total units across all platforms through sheer franchise scale and console reach, but the usual “CoD is number one everywhere” narrative does not hold as comfortably this year. The fact that a brand‑new IP can seriously challenge Call of Duty’s mindshare on PC, in the same weeks as launch, is a meaningful shift. Embark Studios has promised the best arc raiders cheats a hefty roadmap for the title, which already covers November and December. Next month, we’ll get the Cold Snap update, which brings new map conditions, a new legendary weapon, a fresh Raider Deck, and much more. Not only that, but ARC Raiders maintains a phenomenal track record in terms of user ratings, boasting a score of 88% on Steam from more than 100,000 reviews.
The speed and variety of these exploits, combined with how quickly new ones appear, suggest systemic weaknesses rather than isolated incidents. As one exploit is patched, another surfaces, often even more destructive than the last. The planet has suffered an ecological disaster that has wiped out most of the population and most technology. Now, a robotic alien invasion force named Arc has arrived to plunder all the remaining natural resources and kill off humanity, forcing everyone to flee underground, where a vast subterranean city named Toledo has been built.
Your Workshop is where you will be able to upgrade, craft and repair your gear and weapons. Your workshop itself can be upgraded too and as you progress you will be able to craft more and better gear. Performing various actions topside grants your Raider experience points (XP) and when you reach certain thresholds your Raiders level increases. For each level the Raider is also awarded skill points that you can spend to learn new skills and abilities.
One reason the team at Embark gives for including PvP in the final version of ARC Raiders is its ability to create emergent gameplay situations and keep matches feeling fresh. The reason Embark’s extraction shooter is still holding players’ attention a month after launch is because its core loop has proven to be satisfying, even after multiple repeats. ARC Raiders’ physics-driven feedback, tangible atmosphere, iconic audio design, solo matchmaking, and accessibility uncommon for the genre have all contributed to its long-term popularity. A developer at Embark Studios has clarified previous comments from the studio’s CEO regarding the controversial aggression-based matchmaking system in its hit third-person extraction shooter, ARC Raiders. While the matchmaking system in ARC Raiders is aggression-based, as previously revealed, Embark says it will continue to be fine-tuned and that labelling it as “aggression-based” is a bit of a “misnomer.”
Recent comments from developers have revealed some key details that prove why ARC Raiders is still performing well in 2026. As a PvPvE extraction shooter, dying in a match before extracting means losing out on any items the player has on them. With the expectation that players can lose their gear at any time, deciding what to take along when queuing for a match requires a good deal of thought. The choice to incorporate PvP and redirect ARC Raiders to be an extraction shooter allowed the team to keep the world, lore, and large-scale fights against giant machines that they had built for the original pitch. However, it also injected the game with a layer of unpredictability that proved to be the missing key that unlocked the addictive gameplay loop that ARC Raiders players have come to enjoy.
Topside is the place where you spend most of your time in ARC Raiders looking for valuable loot. This could be gameplay items you can use to your advantage or items you can bring back to craft with. ARC Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC. Elevators also make lots of noise, drawing ARC and alerting other nearby players to the fact you’re trying to escape. As things become more desperate, teams begin to plead with each other to escape together so everyone can get out with their loot. In a genius twist, even if you’re downed into the state where you can be revived so long as you don’t bleed out, you can still push the elevator button and escape as your health ebbs away.
