Embark Studios’ game reportedly achieved outstanding sales on Valve’s digital platform, quickly garnering a large audience.

Based on the number of copies sold, Alinea Analytics named Arc Raiders the best-selling game on Steam in November, with a total of 7.7 million copies sold across all platforms. This is further evidence that Embark Studios’ third-person extraction shooter is one of the year’s biggest hits. This follows Alinea Analytics’ report that Arc Raiders sold nearly 750,000 copies the week of November 16–22, with at least half of those sales on Steam and the rest on consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series).

Arc Raiders is a much bigger game than Embark Studios’ free title, The Finals, especially on Steam, where Arc Raiders regularly exceeds The Finals‘ peak concurrent player count. The game’s continued success is interesting to follow, especially as discourse on generative AI in game development is becoming increasingly lively. However, let’s not forget that this multiplayer game is still in its early stages.

Now, Embark must maintain this momentum. Next year, we’ll find out if Arc Raiders has carved out a place for itself in the market, depending on where it stands a year from now. November was dominated by indie games, by the way. RV There Yet? reportedly took second place behind Arc Raiders, selling 1.9 million copies. Peak followed with 1.4 million copies sold, then Dispatch with 1.1 million. The top five was rounded out by Escape from Duckov, a parody of Escape from Tarkov.

It remains to be seen whether Arc Raiders will maintain its position among the most popular multiplayer games. However, Embark Studios can be pleased that the game has been a commercial success, especially since it does not appear to be a critical success this year. Arc Raiders did not make the shortlist for Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards or The Game Awards, receiving only one nomination for Best Multiplayer Game at the latter.

Source: WCCFTech, Substack