ARC Raiders seemingly can’t be stopped in terms of its rising popularity. The game quietly debuted and quickly rose to the top of charts on multiple platforms, and is now in the conversation for Game of the Year for some players. In an era where instant successes are far from guaranteed, it’s a massive achievement.

So what’s the occasion this time? Well, ARC Raiders has just surpassed an all-time peak of 462,488 players according to SteamDB, which narrowly beats out Helldivers 2‘s 458,709 figure. As one of the closest analogs to Helldivers 2, it highlights the power of word of mouth and how technical issues can impact momentum.

ARC Raiders Just Surpassed Helldivers 2 On Steam

It Has More Concurrent Players Overall

For reference, ARC Raiders came out on October 30 and managed to hit this figure in just 11 days. At the time of publication, ARC Raiders is currently beating out PUG Battlegrounds, Battlefield 6, Rust, and Apex Legends. Only Valve’s own Counter-Strike 2 and DOTA 2 are above it (albeit by a large margin).

As for why this is happening, there are several reasons why ARC Raiders differentiates itself from the competition. The framework of PvPvE is a considerable draw, given that many extraction shooters are strictly PVE/co-op based, limiting the audience. By casting a wide net with both, ARC Raiders is also able to coax in the competitive crowd.

ARC Raiders also debuted to fantastic reviews all around, which helped propel it through word of mouth and continue its ascent up the Steam charts. It’s also seemingly a PC-first game, with a large portion of the audience choosing to play the game directly on PC, rather than splitting sales between PC and PS5, as seen in Helldivers 2.

ARC Raiders Is One Of 2025’s Biggest Games

We’ll See How It Fares In 2026

By the time 2025 comes to a close, I think we’ll see ARC Raiders on several Game of the Year lists, especially for genre-specific categories like live service and shooters. The Stockholm-based Embark Studios has a lot to deliver now that so many eyes are on them, and they currently have at least one major update in the works.

Although ARC Raiders was getting some buzz before its launch, it came out of nowhere for many people. It just goes to show how a rock-solid live service launch can make or break a game in the modern era.