The Arc Raiders server slam playtest kicked off today, offering one last free weekend testing session before the game launches on October 30. It’s already putting up serious numbers, with more than 185,000 people playing right now on Steam alone.
According to SteamDB, this player count is enough to put Arc Raiders in the number four spot on Steam’s most played list, ahead of popular titles like PUBG, Rust, and Bongo Cat. What makes this even more impressive is that the server slam is also available on the Epic Games Store as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. This means the actual number of players is likely much higher.
Embark Studios pushed a hotfix shortly after the playtest started to address crashes and errors. Unfortunately, this required a full redownload of the game, but the developers assured players that this “should not be the norm moving forward.”
Since that patch, there have been no major reported issues. In fact, two of our staff members, Morgan Park and Lincoln Carpenter, have been enthusiastically testing the game and say they haven’t encountered any problems. They’re also doing a great job representing the brand.
We expect the concurrent player numbers on Steam to continue climbing as North America gradually moves into Friday night. However, Saturday is when things will really get interesting — it will be the first full day of the test, and many more people with free time on their hands are likely to jump in to see what Arc Raiders is all about.
If Embark Studios can keep the servers stable and the gameplay smooth throughout the weekend, then who knows? Arc Raiders might just become one of the rare online games that doesn’t get slammed on launch day.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/arc-raiders-playtest-slams-past-185-000-concurrent-players-on-steam-alone/