Arc Raiders is busy again. Embark Studios’ extraction shooter spent most of 2026 losing players month after month. Then the Frozen Trail update moved the game to version 2.0 on October 8th, and daily activity climbed to a level it had not reached in half a year.
Quick answer: Arc Raiders reached an estimated 1.7 million daily players across all platforms on October 14th, its highest in six months. On Steam alone, daily peaks rose 4.2 times after Frozen Trail launched.
Arc Raiders daily players across all platforms
Analytics firm Alinea Analytics estimates daily active users across PC and consoles. Its numbers show a rise that began on launch day and kept going after the free weekend ended.
| Date (2026) | Event | Estimated daily players |
|---|---|---|
| Before October 8 | Pre-update baseline | ~599,000 |
| October 8 | Frozen Trail and free weekend begin | ~944,000 |
| October 12 | Free weekend ends | ~1.6 million |
| October 14 | Day after PvE test starts | ~1.7 million |
The order of those numbers matters. The peak came two days after free access ended, not during it. It also landed one day after Embark opened a PvE-only test on October 13th. That test is a strong candidate for bringing back people who had bought the game and then stopped playing.
These are estimates from an outside firm, not figures Embark has published. Embark has not released its own player totals for the update.
Arc Raiders Steam player count since Frozen Trail
Steam publishes concurrent player counts, so it gives a cleaner day-by-day view, though only for PC players on Steam. The day before the update, the game peaked at 43,993 concurrent players. On October 11th, during the free weekend, that number reached 185,443. That is 4.2 times higher and the game’s best Steam peak since March 2026.
| Day (UTC, 2026) | Steam peak | What was live |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 7 | 43,993 | Last day before 2.0 |
| Oct 8 | 130,755 | Update and free play start |
| Oct 9 | 138,613 | Free play |
| Oct 10 | 166,444 | Free play |
| Oct 11 | 185,443 | Free play |
| Oct 12 | 152,392 | Free play ends |
| Oct 13 | 163,922 | PvE test starts |
| Oct 14 | 149,814 | PvE test |
| Oct 15 | 138,454 | PvE test |
| Oct 16 | 141,686 | Discount ends |
| Oct 17 | 156,983 | PvE test |
| Oct 18 | 159,445 | PvE test |
| Oct 19 | 125,761 | PvE test |
Steam peaks have stayed above 125,000 every day since launch. Early on October 20th, about 99,000 people were playing on Steam at once. The 30-day average is 55,403 concurrent players, more than double September’s average of 21,256.
Steam counts leave out PlayStation, Xbox, and other PC stores. They also can’t tell free-play users, returning players, or PvE testers apart. That’s why the Steam peak and the cross-platform daily estimate differ so much.
How far Arc Raiders had fallen before the update
The rebound stands out because the slide before it was so steep. Monthly Steam averages dropped every month from February through September. In January, the game hit its all-time Steam peak of 465,097. By September, its average had fallen to under a tenth of January’s.
| Month | Average Steam players | Peak Steam players |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | 241,197 | 465,097 |
| March 2026 | 112,312 | 250,148 |
| April 2026 | 75,952 | 154,498 |
| May 2026 | 61,054 | 120,450 |
| June 2026 | 35,915 | 68,130 |
| July 2026 | 28,662 | 50,024 |
| August 2026 | 23,217 | 41,319 |
| September 2026 | 21,256 | 39,900 |
Every day since Frozen Trail launched has beaten April’s peak. Most have come close to or passed March’s average. October’s full-month average won’t be known until the month ends. Whether the game holds these numbers once the PvE test closes is still an open question.
Free weekend, discount, and PvE test timing
Embark stacked several events on top of each other, so no single one explains the jump on its own.
- October 8: Frozen Trail 2.0 launches alongside free play.
- October 8–12: Free weekend, during which about 150,000 new players joined.
- October 8–16: 50 percent off, bringing the price to $19.99, the deepest cut the game has had.
- October 13–20: A PvE-only test, playable through October 20th.
The sale turned some players into buyers. During the three days following the free weekend, Arc Raiders moved roughly 150,000 additional copies, bringing in about $3 million before in-game purchases. Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal has said the team is open to making PvE and PvP separate modes permanently, but no permanent split has been announced.
Sentiment looks healthier as well. The game now has 304,316 Steam reviews with an overall 82 percent positive rating.
What Frozen Trail added to Arc Raiders
Embark calls Frozen Trail its largest update since launch, and the patch touches almost every part of the game. It adds a new map, Pendola Pass, plus two new map conditions, Frigate and Redirection. Three new ARC machines arrive, along with two new weapons and a set of traversal gadgets.
- New items: Grappling Hook, Tether Launcher, Yank Grenade, Basic and Advanced Cameras, Mountaineer’s Detector, Banjo, and Harmonica.
- The Outpost, a base you can expand, with a Research Bench and 100 furniture designs.
- A reworked Skill Tree with choice nodes in the middle and at the end of each branch.
- A Reward Pass that replaces Raider Decks, with Cred swapped for Reward Points.
- 22 new quests, Weapon Stencils, and a maximum stash size of 328 slots.
The update also removed “Solo vs. Squads” from matchmaking while Embark rethinks how that option should work.
New ARC: Bully, Skulker, and Hydra
| ARC | Body health | Attack damage | Parts dropped |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bully | 3,000 | Body attack 85 | Bully Fragmenter |
 Hydra | 1,050 | — | — |
 Skulker | 230 | Gatling gun 12 | Skulker Driver, Skulker Targeter |
Bully is a heavily armored machine. Its head has 1,600 health, and its heavy plates are tougher than its light ones.
Hydra has an 800-health core, 550-health joints, and a gatling gun that can be shot apart separately.
Skulker is the lightest of the three. It has legs, thrusters, and thin armor plates.
New weapons: Bantam and Stiletto
| Weapon | Category | Ammo | Magazine |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bantam | Hand Cannon | Heavy Ammo | 8 |
 Stiletto | Battle Rifle | Light Ammo | 10–16 (levels I–IV) |
Bantam is an Uncommon double-action revolver with strong penetration against ARC armor. It hits hard and handles well but has poor accuracy and range. Tian Wen sells Bantam I for 11,400 Coins.
Stiletto is an Uncommon rifle that fires semi-automatically and has three mod slots. Its opening shots are precise with minimal recoil, though control worsens the longer you keep firing.
Together, this content gave lapsed players a reason to reinstall, and the free weekend and sale made returning cheap. The real test comes after the PvE trial wraps on October 20th. If Steam peaks stay well above September’s levels, Frozen Trail will have done more than produce a launch-week spike.
