Two very different shooters launched into the same window this fall and immediately started sharing the same conversation. On one side is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the latest entry in a series that has defined mainstream shooters for more than a decade. On the other is ARC Raiders, a new extraction shooter that arrived with far less baggage and far more curiosity.
The overlap in timing makes a clean comparison tempting: which game is actually winning on player count, sales momentum, and overall interest?
ARC Raiders vs. Black Ops 7 on Steam player counts
There is one place where the comparison is straightforward: concurrent players on Steam. Both games are available on Valve’s store, and both hit major milestones on the same launch weekend for Black Ops 7.
| Metric | ARC Raiders (PC, Steam) | Black Ops 7 (PC, Steam) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak concurrent players (launch weekend overlap) | ~481,966 | ~100,332 | ARC Raiders’ third weekend vs. BO7’s launch weekend |
| Previous ARC Raiders peak | ~416,000 | — | ARC Raiders broke its own record during BO7’s debut |
| Black Ops 6 Steam launch peak (2024) | — | ~315,000 | Nearly triple Black Ops 7’s Steam launch peak |
| Battlefield 6 Steam peak around BO7 launch | ~300,000 | — | Another large shooter competing for the same audience |
Seen purely through Steam’s lens, ARC Raiders is the clear winner. It reached almost half a million concurrent PC players during the same weekend Black Ops 7 launched, roughly five times the Call of Duty title’s peak on that platform. That number also represented a new high for ARC Raiders, which had already climbed past its previous record of around 416,000 concurrent players only ten days after release.
For Black Ops 7, the more worrying comparison is not ARC Raiders, but its own predecessor. Black Ops 6 launched on Steam with a peak of roughly 315,000 concurrent players. Under a year later, its direct sequel opened at around a third of that, despite similar distribution across Steam, Battle.net, and PC Game Pass.
Why Steam doesn’t tell the whole Call of Duty story
Steam’s numbers are the only public, live player counts either game exposes, but they do not capture the full picture for Call of Duty. Black Ops 7 is:
- Sold on multiple PC storefronts, including Battle.net and the Microsoft Store.
- Included with PC Game Pass from launch, where players do not appear in Steam’s charts.
- Historically far more popular on consoles than on PC.
Every recent Call of Duty entry has sold most of its copies on PlayStation and Xbox, and Black Ops 6 was described as the biggest release in franchise history by its publisher only a year ago. That pattern makes it extremely likely that Black Ops 7 is attracting a much larger audience than its Steam count implies, especially once holiday console sales are factored in.
What Steam does show is movement at the margin. Under the same platform split as last year—Steam, Battle.net, and Game Pass—Black Ops 6 hit roughly three times the Steam concurrence that Black Ops 7 is seeing at launch. Steam did not suddenly become less popular with Call of Duty players in a single year; instead, it suggests that some portion of the regular audience either shifted to other shooters or delayed buying in.
How ARC Raiders built momentum into Black Ops 7’s launch
While Call of Duty wrestles with a down year on PC, ARC Raiders has been on a steady climb. Embark Studios’ extraction shooter landed on October 30 and kept pulling players in through its third weekend, rather than cooling off.
Several factors are driving that momentum:
- A clear genre hook. ARC Raiders is a third-person, PvPvE extraction shooter that leans into resource collection, survival mechanics, and large-scale fights against mechanical enemies. It sits in the same broad space as games like Escape from Tarkov and The Division, but with a sharper sci-fi identity.
- Pedigree from The Finals. Embark’s previous hit built an audience that already trusts the studio to experiment with multiplayer systems and live content loops.
- Word-of-mouth around a “gap in the market.” Players looking for a new extraction-focused experience that is not a military sim or a battle royale have gravitated towards ARC Raiders, especially as it demonstrated staying power beyond its launch week.
The timing of its first major update was also deliberate. The “North Line” update landed just before Black Ops 7, introducing a large community event: players collectively gathered resources to reopen a tunnel network that leads to the new Stella Montis map, a remote research facility with new enemies, quests, and gear.
The community completed that unlock in roughly a day, which meant that during Black Ops 7’s debut weekend, ARC Raiders players had an entirely fresh map to explore. That kind of synchronized content beat is a textbook way to hold attention when a giant competitor shows up.
Battlefield 6 as the third pillar in the fight
ARC Raiders is not the only shooter pulling at Call of Duty’s audience. Battlefield 6 has quietly become a strong performer after its own rocky history for the franchise, and it is sitting just below ARC Raiders on Steam’s charts with a peak of nearly 300,000 concurrent players around the same weekend.
That matters for Call of Duty in two ways:
- It gives the “big war” audience a solid alternative. Players who previously bounced between Battlefield and Call of Duty now have a Battlefield entry that feels closer to the series’ classic formula.
- It creates a crowded release window. In past years, Call of Duty often dominated the shooter conversation on its own. Right now, three large online shooters are competing in the same season, all on PC and console.
When even long-time Call of Duty fans say they have “been playing Battlefield 6 so much” that they did not realize Black Ops 7 had launched, that is less about platform splits and more about mindshare.
Campaign controversy and player sentiment around Black Ops 7
Raw numbers tell only part of the story. Player sentiment around Black Ops 7 is unusually negative for a series that has often been accused of coasting, yet still sold tens of millions of copies.
The campaign is the flash point. Several decisions have landed badly with players:
- Always-online requirements for solo play. The campaign is structured as a four-player co-op experience that does not populate AI squadmates when you play alone. Missions cannot be paused, and disconnects or brief connection drops can kick players back to the menu, costing progress.
- Reuse of multiplayer maps and assets. Many missions are built directly out of multiplayer spaces and existing assets, which undermines the sense of bespoke, cinematic storytelling that previous Black Ops campaigns were known for.
- Harsh mid‑mission checkpoint behavior. Reports of players losing upwards of an hour of progress after a brief network issue have reinforced the feeling that the campaign is designed around service infrastructure rather than the single‑player experience.
On top of that, the game has been heavily criticized for its reliance on AI‑generated art in cosmetic elements and for leaning into a “live service plus annual box release” model that resets purchases and progression from previous entries. For a significant slice of the audience, paying a premium price tag for a campaign that feels constrained by online systems and a multiplayer suite packed with microtransactions is a step too far.
None of this means Call of Duty has suddenly become a commercial failure. It does mean that more players than usual are either skipping a year, waiting for discounts, or trying competing games first. That shift shows up most clearly on PC, where switching is a download away.
Sales and engagement beyond Steam
Steam concurrency is only one metric. To understand which game is “winning” overall, it helps to split the question in three: PC engagement, total sales, and cultural interest.
| Dimension | ARC Raiders | Black Ops 7 | Who is ahead? |
|---|---|---|---|
| PC concurrent players (Steam) | Strong: ~482k peak in week three | Weak vs. past CoD: ~100k peak at launch | ARC Raiders |
| PC ecosystem breadth | Steam and Epic Games Store | Steam, Battle.net, Microsoft Store, PC Game Pass | Black Ops 7 |
| Console footprint | PS5, Xbox Series X/S | PlayStation and Xbox, historically dominant there | Black Ops 7 (likely) |
| Franchise inertia | New IP | Long‑running AAA series, annual releases | Black Ops 7 |
| Launch‑window momentum on PC | Rising into week three | Down vs. previous CoD entries | ARC Raiders |
On PC, ARC Raiders is clearly out in front on raw concurrence and momentum. It is an outright success by any reasonable metric: high player counts, strong word of mouth, and an update cadence that keeps the game in conversation.
Black Ops 7 almost certainly moves more total units across all platforms through sheer franchise scale and console reach, but the usual “CoD is number one everywhere” narrative does not hold as comfortably this year. The fact that a brand‑new IP can seriously challenge Call of Duty’s mindshare on PC, in the same weeks as launch, is a meaningful shift.
What this means if you are choosing between the games
Most people do not pick shooters based on charts alone, but the current landscape does point to different strengths and trade‑offs.
| Question | ARC Raiders | Black Ops 7 |
|---|---|---|
| Looking for a fresh experience? | New extraction‑style loop with co‑op and PvPvE in a sci‑fi world. | Faster, more vertical spin on the familiar CoD formula. |
| Care most about campaign quality? | No traditional CoD‑style story, focus is on ongoing sessions. | Campaign exists but is heavily criticized for online‑only design and reuse of assets. |
| Want the largest console player base? | Healthy but smaller console footprint. | Consistently one of the most played games on PlayStation and Xbox. |
| Prefer to follow competitive metas and Warzone‑style play? | Emphasis is on extraction, not arena or battle royale. | Tied into the broader Call of Duty ecosystem, including Warzone progression. |
If you play primarily on PC and care about where the energy is right now, ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6 have the momentum. If your friends are on console and live in the Call of Duty ecosystem, Black Ops 7 will likely still be the default every‑night shooter, even in a comparatively down year.
The more interesting takeaway is structural rather than tribal: for the first time in a long time, a new multiplayer IP and a resurgent Battlefield have carved out enough space that Call of Duty no longer looks untouchable in every category. On PC, ARC Raiders is already ahead. In total sales, Call of Duty probably still leads. In terms of where shooter players feel they have a real choice, everyone is winning except the incumbents that stopped listening.
