It was the Arc Raiders Server Slam over the weekend, but you probably already know that. Why? Because a frankly alarming number of people poured in to slam those servers, so odds are decent you're one of them.
With the full version of Embark Studios' extraction shooter due out on October 30, its server test must have the devs licking their lips for a successful launch. Arc Raiders pulled in a peak concurrent player count of 189,668.
That makes it Steam's 89th most-played game by concurrent players, per the keepers of the scrolls over at SteamDB. It's ahead of GTA 5 Enhanced, Dune: Awakening, and Football Manager 2020, and just a hair off the personal records of Warframe and Stellar Blade.
It's worth nothing that the game hit its peak pretty early in the server test, mind you. Right as things picked up, we brought you news that the game had slipped just part 185,000 players. The mathletes among you will note that 189,668 isn't too much more than that, and indeed the game reached that peak on the first day of the Server Slam.
I'm gonna go ahead and venture a guess that it wasn't because a whole bunch of people tried the game and immediately bounced off. Rather, I suspect that quite a few people logged in, tooled around for a little bit, and set Arc Raiders to one side while they waited for full release, which is already so close.
After all, Arc Raiders has a history of popular playtests. Its April test pulled in a good number of players who were so satisfied with their time they thought the game should have released there and then, although its design director says that would actually have been a terrible idea. Either way, the game has momentum and popularity, and you've gotta wonder if Bungie isn't sweating it just a little as it continues to chip away at Marathon.
