Arc Raiders is already one of the biggest extraction shooters on Steam

Arclight Guide Although only released for a day, it has already surpassed Steam's peak number of concurrent players at 264,673, making it one of the largest extraction shooters ever on Valve's platform.

given Arc Raiders wraps up recent 'Server Slam' playtest with massive player count on Steamdeveloper Embark Studio could be having a big launch day. Which isn't bad, since it's one of the biggest games on Steam right now; it's just that Battlefield 6“Counter-Strike 2”, “Dota 2”, “PUBG” and the popular game “Escape from Duckov” set larger peaks in 24 hours.

This means that more people have played Arc Raiders on Steam in the past 24 hours than even free-to-play games such as apex legend and marvel rival.

Arc Raiders' actual player count will certainly be higher than the player count on Steam, since it also releases on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. Neither Sony nor Microsoft has disclosed player numbers. It's also worth remembering that Arc Raiders launches mid-week, so player numbers are expected to increase as the game heads into its first weekend. So far, we can say that Arc Raiders' launch on Steam has been truly impressive, with “very positive” user reviews after over 8,800 reviews.

It will be interesting to see how Arc Raiders performs as it is probably one of its biggest competitors, Escape from Tarkovwhich will debut on Steam next month. Another major competitor could be marathon. Arc Raiders' design director previously said it was serendipitous timing that Bungie's extraction shooter would launch playtesting around the same time as its own game, calling it “This is a great A/B test for us.”

Earlier this week, Embark insists it's not worried About the launch of Arc Raiders Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7insisting: “We believe the game can be released there.”

“I know. It's crazy,” said CEO Patrick Soderlund gaming business. “People might look at (Arc Raiders' release date) and say, 'What the hell are they doing?' We've spent a lot of time looking at it from multiple angles, and rightly or wrongly, we believe the game can be released there. It's the beginning of a long journey. It needs to start somewhere.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist and consultant for IGN with over 15 years of experience working with some of the largest gaming sites and publications in the world. She's also a Guardian, a Spartan, a Silent Hill Warrior, a Legend, and an eternal High Chaos. find her in blue sky.