ARC Raiders made an on-screen appearance in South Park Season 28’s “Turkey Trot,” with the game shown multiple times as Tolkien Black plays it on an Xbox. The cameo includes footage displayed on a TV within the episode, treating the game as a real piece of pop culture rather than a throwaway reference.
What happened in “Turkey Trot”
The cameo is straightforward in execution: Cartman encounters Tolkien playing ARC Raiders, and the game remains visible across multiple scenes. It’s not an offhand mention or a generic controller gag. The show depicts the game itself, including what looks like in-game footage on a television screen.
The timeline was measured in days
The unusual part isn’t that South Park referenced a videogame. It’s how quickly the cameo came together. Ashley St. Germain described a tight sequence: South Park asked whether a character could play ARC Raiders on Monday, footage was delivered Tuesday, and the game appeared in the episode on Wednesday.
Why it’s notable for South Park’s production model
South Park has a long-running reputation for building episodes quickly to stay topical. Even with shifts in scheduling in recent seasons, the show’s process still supports late-breaking inserts. A videogame cameo with recognizable footage is a useful example because it requires more than a script change: someone has to clear usage, get assets in the right format, and integrate them into animation and edit.
Why this kind of cameo matters for a game like ARC Raiders
For a game, a cameo like this lands differently than a typical ad placement. It’s framed as something a character is spending time with, which implies familiarity and current relevance. That effect is stronger when the show uses footage rather than a fictionalized parody.
St. Germain also positioned the game’s public rollout around execution and community-led momentum, emphasizing focus on building the game and supporting it with a campaign designed to invite players in.
ARC Raiders’ current footprint in the mainstream
ARC Raiders is described as a widely played extraction shooter on PC and console, with 4 million copies sold and a reported peak above 700,000 concurrent players across platforms. In that context, a South Park cameo reads less like a random deep cut and more like the show reflecting what people are playing.
What to take away
The cameo isn’t a long-form collaboration or a branded in-game crossover. It’s a quick, concrete integration that depended on fast coordination and a production pipeline built to accommodate last-minute decisions. The end result is simple: in “Turkey Trot,” ARC Raiders shows up as a game the characters recognize, play, and keep on-screen long enough for viewers to notice it’s real.
