Despite being one of the biggest breakout hits of 2024, it seems as if Arrowhead Game Studios' Helldivers 2 has officially been overshadowed by one of 2025's runaway successes, the newly released extraction shooter Arc Raiders. Helldivers 2 originally released on February 8, 2024, for PlayStation 5 and PC, but was later made available on Xbox Series X/S on August 26, 2025.
While Arrowhead Game Studios has provided Helldivers 2 with quite a bit of support since its launch, regularly adding new enemy units and even the Illuminate faction, the developer has had to slow down recently. A growing number of bugs and optimization issues caught up with the game, and even the developers stated that Helldivers 2 was beginning to "break at the seams." Since then, Arrowhead Games studios has charted a new path forward for Helldivers 2, one that focuses on prioritizing performance and bug fixes over new content. While many fans are eager to experience fresh content, it seems as if Arrowhead Games Studios' new priorities could be a good sign of things to come for the popular shooter in the long run.
Arc Raiders Has Toppled Helldivers 2
According to SteamDB, a site that tracks various statistics of games on the platform, Arc Raiders recently broke its own record and reached 462,488 concurrent players less than ten days after its already-successful launch. This means the newly released extraction shooter has officially overtaken the concurrent player record of Helldivers 2 on Steam, which peaked at 458,709 shortly after its launch in 2024. This is just one of many successes for Embark Studios' new extraction shooter, as Arc Raiders even managed to overtake Battlefield 6 on Steam during its second weekend. Both Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2 put their own twist on the extraction shooter genre. While Arc Raiders is an experience that mixes PvP and PvE together, Helldivers 2 is strictly a PvE title that focuses on cooperative play.
Of course, as a live-service title, Arc Raiders is just getting started. Embark Studios has already released a roadmap of what players can expect to see added to the extraction shooter in the coming weeks and months. During November, players will see a new map called Stella Montis added to the game, which should provide quite a bit of excitement for gamers who have already managed to familiarize themselves with the game's current locations. Embark Studios has stated that it will also be adding new Arcs, items, quests, and map conditions before the end of 2025.
As players continue to flock to the fresh extraction shooter, many gamers are posting their humorous Arc Raiders clips online. Whether playing solo or in a squad, players seem eager to share their topside experiences of friendship, betrayal, and everything in between. With so much content to enjoy and even more just around the corner, many fans are feeling optimistic about the future of Arc Raiders.
ARC Raiders
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 87 /100 Critics Rec: 92%
- Released
- October 30, 2025
- ESRB
- Teen / Violence, Blood
- Developer(s)
- Embark Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Embark Studios
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Extraction, Shooter, Third-Person Shooter, Survival
