Arc Raiders has been Steam's top-selling premium game every week since its launch, so it's no wonder its player count has barely dwindled
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Scott McCrae
2026-01-02
Not only was Arc Raiders the best-selling Steam game of the holidays, but it's been the Steam best-seller every single week since it launched back in October.
I don't need to tell you how successful Arc Raiders has been. Despite some controversy about its AI usage, players have been enamored with the shooter, with it overshadowing the likes of Battlefield 6 – which has massive hype as a return to form for the series – and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which is largely considered pretty bad, but it's still Call of Duty. Outside of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it's hard to think of a game with a bigger impact on 2025, and it's got the numbers to back that up.
As reported by Eurogamer, SteamDB data shows that Arc Raiders was the best-selling game of the 2025 holiday season, with only Counter-Strike 2 appearing above it in the charts (which are based on revenue instead of sales, so it probably had about one knife sale). However, it actually goes deeper than that.
Arc Raiders launches to over 260,000 concurrent players and 88% positive early reviews on Steam, outdoing The Finals even at $40
Arc Raiders climbs to new Steam peak of over 460,000 concurrent players, beating Helldivers 2's all-time record as the new extraction shooter from ex-Battlefield devs continues growing
Arc Raiders is now the highest-rated multiplayer shooter on OpenCritic, beating the likes of Overwatch and Quake 2 as positive reviews for the ex-Battlefield devs' new game pour in
Looking back on SteamDB from this past week until the week of October 28 to November 4, 2025, Arc Raiders has been at the top of the charts every single week when it comes to paid games. The only week it was behind another non-free-to-play item was Black Friday week, when the Steam Deck took the top spot, and Counter-Strike 2 is the only game – free or paid – to overtake it.
Looking at the SteamDB charts the PC player count reflects this, too. It's lowest player count day was 263,615 on December 11, 2025, which are numbers most games could only dream of. New Year's Day saw a player count of 428,579 which is really not that far from it's all-time peak of 481,966 back on November 16, 2025.
Outside of the aforementioned AI use, players seem really happy with Arc Raiders, so I wouldn't be shocked to see this reign continue for a while yet. Given that Resident Evil Requiem is probably the first major release of 2026 with a chance of taking the top spot, we could be watching Arc Raiders on top for another month and change yet.
Arc Raiders players are losing firefights due to unhelpful glitch that prevents them from taking out their weapon.
v1nylRecord
Jan 03, 10:31 AM
Yeah, this game is awesome, 10/10. gnarly 🐉 Good for adults.#
botanical_dream
Jan 03, 06:21 AM
yo Pretty cool. i played it. This is terrible! right on
Jan 03, 04:41 AM
competitive is fun.
blueChip
Jan 03, 02:11 AM
right on I gave it away You gotta try it. gtg Good accessibility.
sleepy404
Jan 03, 12:21 AM
likely
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