Escape From Duckov quacks past 300,000 concurrent players only 10 days after release

Escape From Duckov - A green pigeon stands unaware while a duck in a SWAT helmet sneaks up from behind

(Image credit: Team Soda)

Escape From Duckov might look like a goofy riff on Escape From Tarkov, and that's because it is one. But it's also a righteous way to breathe in the extraction shooter hype without all the hardcore PvP, and players are flocking to give it a shot. Today on Oct. 26, that number hit a screaming high of over 300,000 simultaneous players, according to SteamDB.

When PC Gamer news writer Lincoln Carpenter gave the game a spin, he conceded he thought the game was an elaborate bit at first. It won him over, though, as he said his impressions: "Under its deceptive meme game veneer, Escape From Duckov is an excellent topdown shooter that smartly repackages the extraction shooter in a satisfying singleplayer format."

Singleplayer extraction shooter might sound like a bit of an oxymoron—the genre is all about evading other players to escape with your life and loot—but Duckov is stuffed with all sorts of quests and a base to kit out with upgrades, essentially squeezing the genre into the framework of a roguelite RPG. There's also fishing, love it or hate it.

If it's true that Team Soda's angle was to inject a little virality into their game with the satirical title and cutesy animals, then bully for Team Soda; it worked. Regardless of the context, it seems like they've landed on a silly, enjoyable game people are hungry for more of. In this day and age, I feel compelled to cheer on any game making the dream work. Duckov is certainly a mite more successful than the studio's last game, which only ever hit a concurrent player count peak of 1,631.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

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