ARC Raiders Surpasses Black Ops 7 Player Count on Steam Leave a comment

In a surprising turn of events for the gaming industry, Embark Studios‘ ARC Raiders is outperforming Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on Steam, even though the former is in its third week of release while the latter just launched. The player count numbers tell a compelling story about shifting player preferences in the competitive shooter market.

Black Ops 7‘s launch weekend on Steam peaked at just over 100,000 concurrent players, according to tracking data from the platform. That’s a significant drop from Black Ops 6, which peaked at 315,000 concurrent players near its launch last year according to Technobezz data. Meanwhile, ARC Raiders, which launched three weeks ago, hit a new peak of 479,470 concurrent players during the same Black Ops 7 release weekend.

What makes this comparison particularly interesting is that Black Ops 7 is available on Game Pass for PC, which typically boosts player numbers beyond what Steam tracking shows. Even accounting for that advantage, the gap between the two games is substantial. To match ARC Raiders’ Steam numbers, Black Ops 7 would need to multiply its Steam concurrent player count almost five times over.

The situation gets even more complex when you consider that Black Ops 7’s launch comes with little to no data shared about Game Pass play, making direct comparisons challenging. This lack of transparency around Xbox platform numbers has become increasingly frustrating for analysts trying to get a complete picture of game performance in the current gaming landscape.

In early October 2025, when Black Ops 7’s open beta accidentally censored the phrase “ARC Raiders” due to a text filter error, Embark Studios responded with a tongue-in-cheek censored promo of their own. The studio posted: “We’re still on track to release *** ******* on October 30th,” embracing the situation with humor rather than hostility.

Activision quickly confirmed the censorship was due to a text filter error and implemented a patch to allow unrestricted mentions of ARC Raiders. This lighthearted exchange between the two studios stands in contrast to the typically competitive nature of major game launches.

ARC Raiders’ success comes after a strong beta period that drew nearly 190,000 concurrent players on Steam alone during its Server Slam open test in October. The game, developed by former DICE developers who worked on the Battlefield series, represents a significant departure from Embark’s previous work on THE FINALS. Where THE FINALS focused on frantic action, ARC Raiders requires players to think before shooting, creating a more tactical survival experience.

The game’s shift from a free-to-play model to a $40 premium release appears to have paid off, with players responding positively to the PvPvE action survival shooter set in a post-post-apocalyptic world where humanity has rebuilt after catastrophe.

For Activision, the weaker-than-expected Black Ops 7 launch on Steam raises questions about the franchise’s momentum. While the game is still expected to perform well across all platforms, the Steam numbers suggest either a shift in player preferences or potential issues with the latest installment in the long-running series.

As both games continue their respective lifecycles, the player count battle between ARC Raiders and Black Ops 7 will be one to watch. It represents not just a competition between two games, but potentially a shift in what players want from their shooter experiences in 2025.