Embark Studios’ new extraction shooter, ARC Raiders, has reached an all-time high player count, but the surge in popularity caused major server instability. The impressive growth tested the game’s infrastructure as thousands of players flooded the servers simultaneously.
At its peak, ARC Raiders reached 354,836 concurrent players on Steam. This milestone placed the game among the most played titles on the platform, alongside hits such as GTA 5, Starfield, Monster Hunter: World, and Borderlands 4.
As the player numbers skyrocketed on Sunday evening, network issues began to appear, impacting users around the world. Embark Studios responded quickly, introducing a queue system and temporarily disabling crossplay to stabilize performance.
During the recovery period, many players faced long queues, party connection failures, and intermittent crashes. However, the developers resolved most issues swiftly, restoring gameplay for the majority of users within hours.
This short-term disruption highlighted the exceptional popularity and ambition of ARC Raiders, which has already been hailed as one of the most promising extraction shooters since its recent release.
ARC Raiders recently received a sizeable roadmap, outlining several months of new content for the game.
With continued updates on the horizon, Embark Studios aims to strengthen the game’s foundation while expanding its world and content for an ever-growing community.
ARC Raiders’ record-breaking success briefly overwhelmed its servers, underscoring both its growing fan base and its potential as a top-tier extraction shooter.