Battlefield’s latest entry is a smash hit, so Embark Studios’ game looks outstanding if it is already posting comparable results.

Arc Raiders is currently one of Steam’s hottest games. Per SteamDB, it had a blistering start, peaking at more than 354,000 concurrent players on Friday evening. That tally is huge for any shooter, especially given the game launched just over a week ago. For a brief stretch, Arc Raiders even pulled ahead of Battlefield 6, one of Steam’s current heavyweights, with around 329,000 players versus BF6’s roughly 318,000 early Saturday.

While Arc Raiders may never catch a long-running franchise at full stride, it has drawn a massive, steady audience in week one. It is refreshing to see a new IP approach the popularity of a giant like Battlefield, which carries more than two decades of history. Arc Raiders runs smoothly and does not demand high-end hardware, a pitch that is often easier to sell than cutting-edge visuals.

It also is not the kind of game that gleefully kicks you down a staircase and laughs while you break your neck at every step. Escape From Tarkov, for instance, can feel like that. Clearly, players want the loot-and-extract loop in a calmer environment. Tellingly, among Steam’s current top ten most active titles, the only other extraction-style shooter is the single-player parody Escape From Duckov.

At one point, it looked like Arc Raiders and Bungie’s Marathon reboot would battle for the extraction crown. Whatever comes of Bungie’s influence on the genre, Arc Raiders has seized an early lead, and Marathon may hinge on Sony’s live service ambitions and, potentially, on the studio’s headcount.

Source: PCGamer, SteamDB – Arc Raiders, SteamDB – Battlefield 6