Arc Raiders playtest slams past 185,000 concurrent players on Steam alone

Arc Raiders Server Slam open beta: Key art for the game showing a character wearing makeshift armour and helmet, walking forward with a gun by their side. There are two more characters in the background overlayed by an orange and blue hue on the left and right respectively. — (Image credit: Embark)

The Arc Raiders server slam playtest kicked off today, offering one last free weekend testing session before the game launches on October 30. And it's putting up serious numbers, with more than 185,000 people playing right now—on Steam alone.

That number, courtesy of SteamDB, is good enough to put Arc Raiders in the number four spot on Steam's most played list, ahead of PUBG, Rust, and Bongo Cat. It's even more impressive when you consider that the server slam is also available on the Epic Games Store as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, meaning the actual number of people playing is higher—likely much higher.

Morgan and Lincoln are in the Arc Raiders server slam, killing some guys — (Image credit: Morgan Park (Future))

I expect that concurrent player number of Steam will continue to climb as North America slowly rolls into Friday night, but Saturday is where things will really get interesting: The first full day of the test, with an awful lot more people with free time on their hands likely to jump in to see what it's all about. If Embark can keep the lights on and wheels turning through that, then who knows? Maybe Arc Raiders will be the rare online game that actually doesn't get slammed into the ground on launch day.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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