Arc Raiders had nearly 1 million concurrent players in January, and around 6 million 'weekly active users', claims Nexon—putting the extraction shooter on par with some of the biggest MMOs

Arc Raiders Trophy Display: Key art showing three characters. The one on the left is wearing a blue pincho and holding a pistol ready at their hip. The middle figure is wearing a brown poncho and cowboy hat, facing the camera with a pistol across their chest. On the right is another character in a brown poncho and hat but facing away. — (Image credit: Embark)

Arc Raiders has, by all accounts, done rather quite well for itself. Shooting past 12 million players worldwide back in January, a recent investor presentation reveals that 2026 got off to a bang for the hottest extraction shooter on the block (thanks, Eurogamer).

A slide relating to the game itself claims the following—firstly, that Arc Raiders hit a concurrent player peak of 960,000 players in January, and "approximately six million

A graph provided by Newzoo with estimates of the Arc Raiders playerbase. — (Image credit: Newzoo)

Which is a mighty number for an extraction shooter, competing with the highest playercounts of a completely different genre known for having long-time player counts in the millions: The MMORPG.

For reference, back in June last year, it was estimated that Final Fantasy 14 had around 950,000 active subscribers by a (long-running, but fan-made) player census. And that 6 million "weekly active users" number puts it on par with World of Warcraft's highest subscriber peaks, like the 5.5 million reported subs it boasted during Legion back in 2015.

Granted, these are subscription MMOs, and Arc Raiders is a buy-oncer with some microtransactions stuffed in it, but that's still impressive for an extraction shooter. Well, kinda. Live service games, be they extraction shooters or some other brand of co-op, seem to have slotted comfortably into the same position that MMORPGs occupied back in the genre's heyday.

Per the report itself, Arc Raiders is most popular in North America and Europe, partially responsible for a stonking 364% revenue increase year-on-year in those regions alongside Maplestory and The First Descendant. Not too shabby, especially for a game that's committed the cardinal sin of imperfect road signage.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.