When it launched in October, ARC Raiders became an instant hit. It proved extraction shooters can be viable live-service behemoths catering to more casual rather than purely hardcore audiences. Ever since then, it has grown month after month, hitting new player-count peaks time and again, which you don't see often these days.
But 2026 hasn't been so kind to the game. Since its latest peak in January, ARC Raiders' average player count is five times lower than its 481,966 high at around 92,000 players as of writing. This is natural to a degree: players get tired of any given game and recirculate when a new update or significant patch comes out. There are only so many new players that you can draw into a niche genre, and I have a feeling ARC Raiders was played by just about every dedicated extraction shooter fan out there.
