Arc Raiders player count hits new record despite Black Ops 7 launch

Arc Raiders has been going down a storm, no matter if you’re a PvE slayer or a PvP god; there seems to be something for everyone. This has reflected in the sheer number of people playing the game, with hundreds of thousands leaving Speranza in search of loot on a daily basis.

Many might have thought that the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 might have hampered Arc Raiders’ momentum, but no, not even that video game freight train has impacted this, with the latter reaching a new player count record over the weekend.

Black Ops 7 can’t slow down Arc Raiders

Call of Duty comes around every year and attracts plenty of shooter fans, stealing them from putting hours in on other franchises.

This cycle, however, has been a bit of a blip, with Battlefield 6 first dealing a blow during its beta, and then Arc Raiders launching ahead of Black Ops 7, to overwhelming positive feedback.

The usual numbers from a Call of Duty title simply aren’t there, maybe due to CoD fatigue or the game not being particularly well received, but there’s one big Speranza-shaped roadblock in the form of Arc Raiders, which is not only retaining players but breaking records on Black Ops 7’s release weekend.

On Sunday, November 16, Arc Raiders hit its all-time high player count of a staggering 481,966, placing it in the top 25 most played Steam games since records began. Compare this to Call of Duty, which peaked at 100,332 on the same day, and is subsequently Black Ops 7’s high so far.

Whether things change remains to be seen, but Black Ops 7 is getting plenty of criticism, whether that be on the campaign, zombies, or multiplayer side, so it is hard to see how anything knocks Arc Raiders off its perch this year.

Fresh content is keeping Arc Raiders alive and kicking

Arc Raiders was a fantastic experience right out of the gate, with a few different maps to explore and a bunch of quests to complete.

However, players get bored very quickly these days, so new content is integral to keeping those concurrent numbers as high as possible.

Embark Studios has done a brilliant job at this, teasing the Stella Montis map on launch, integrating a community material exchange event to unlock it, and a rewards track for playing now that it is live.

All of this combined with listening to player feedback, which is influencing patches, is a recipe for serious longevity, and we could even see that staggering 481k high be broken again if more juicy updates go live.