Over half of Arc Raiders players on Steam have barely engaged with PvP, and 19% have never even killed another player
Two weeks in, Arc Raiders is still a mostly peaceful place.
Yesterday, I was looting a cache in Arc Raiders when someone walked up and blasted me with a shotgun. I returned fire with my measly Kettle peashooter and somehow won the fight, which triggered a Steam achievement:
Unyielding: Knock out 10 raiders (42.3%)
I thought that couldn't possibly be right. Over 35 hours in Arc Raiders, and that was only my tenth time getting a lick in with PvP? But after thinking about it, yea, it lines up. I haven't shot anybody on sight since my first couple of raids, and my modest kill count is almost entirely self-defense—all except for one time I was playing with friends and they decided to be aggressors (not my finest moment). My experience playing solo has been so overwhelmingly chill that I've hardly had any problems with other raiders roaming the Rust Belt.
After examining the achievement closer, it turns out my situation isn't unusual. Just 42.3% of Steam players have the Unyielding achievement, meaning that over half (57.7%) of the PC player base is at least as pacifist as me.
That's simply remarkable for an extraction shooter. If there was any doubt left that Arc Raiders has developed a uniquely non-hostile culture, there ya go. Even more notable is the earn rate of another Steam achievement:
Crossed the Threshold: Knock out a raider (81.3%)
A whopping 19% of PC players haven't even downed another player at all. Arc Raiders has been out for nearly two weeks. Now that's surprising.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Achievement metrics come with some caveats, of course. Those numbers include anyone who has bought and launched Arc Raiders, so surely some of those 57.3% represent folks who haven't played much since they got it, but the earn rate of other early achievements tell us that nearly 90% of Steam players have at least completed the tutorial and dealt 1,000 damage to Arc.



And for a fun bit of social symmetry, the exact same percentage of players (81.3%) who've indulged in murder have actively engaged in neighborly elevator sharing:
The Friends We Made Along The Way: Return to Speranza together with an encountered Raider (81.3%).
That's nice.
Steam Frame: Valve's new wireless VR headset
Steam Machine: Compact living room gaming box
Steam Controller: A controller to replace your mouse

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.
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.


