According to Wccftech, a report from Alinea Analytics lists ARC Raiders as the number-one best-selling game on Steam for November 2025 by copies sold. The game has now reached a total of 7.7 million copies sold across all platforms, including PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. In the week of November 16-22 alone, it sold nearly 750,000 copies. Its success on Steam is so pronounced that it’s surpassing the peak concurrent player counts of Embark Studios’ other major title, the free-to-play game The Finals. Despite this commercial boom, the game missed major Game of the Year nominations at both the Golden Joysticks and The Game Awards, securing only a nomination for Best Multiplayer in the latter.
The Indie Surprise
Here’s the thing that’s almost as interesting as ARC Raiders’ success: the rest of the November Steam chart. It was absolutely dominated by indie games. The report shows RV There Yet? took second place with 1.9 million copies, followed by Peak at 1.4 million, Dispatch at 1.1 million, and the Escape from Tarkov parody Escape from Duckov rounding out the top five. That’s a huge amount of sales concentrated outside of the usual AAA blockbusters. It feels like a market correction, or maybe just proof that players are desperately hungry for fresh ideas. When a parody game can crack the top five in sales, you know the landscape is shifting.
The Finals Shadow
Now, the most direct comparison for ARC Raiders is its stablemate, The Finals. And that’s where the numbers get really compelling. The Finals is a massive, viral free-to-play hit. But ARC Raiders, a premium paid game, is apparently beating its peak concurrency as part of its *daily* numbers. Let that sink in. A paid extraction shooter is pulling in a more consistently engaged crowd on Steam than a free-to-play phenomenon. That says two things: first, the core gameplay loop of ARC Raiders is obviously incredibly sticky. Second, it completely flips the script on what we thought Embark’s breakout hit would be. Everyone expected The Finals to be their flagship. Turns out, ARC Raiders might be the real titan.
The Critical Question
So it’s a sales juggernaut. But is it a *great* game? The award season so far suggests the critical establishment isn’t fully convinced. While it’s battling for best multiplayer, the GOTY conversation is totally owned by heavyweights like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. This creates a fascinating disconnect. You have millions of players voting with their wallets, seemingly at odds with critical tastemakers. Is this just a case of a fun, crowd-pleasing game that doesn’t push artistic boundaries? Or have the awards simply failed to catch up to what players actually love? I think it’s probably a bit of both. Extraction shooters are more about tense, emergent stories you create with friends than a crafted narrative, and awards have always struggled to evaluate that.
The Real Test Ahead
But here’s the real challenge. We’re talking about a live-service multiplayer game. Selling 7.7 million copies is an incredible launch, but it’s just that—a launch. The true measure of success is where it is a year from now. Can Embark keep the content pipeline flowing and the community engaged? The player charts a year from now will tell the real story. Right now, Embark Studios gets to enjoy some serious commercial flowers. They’ve built not one, but two major hits in a brutally competitive genre. That’s a hell of an achievement. But the pressure is now on to prove ARC Raiders isn’t just a flash in the pan. The next year is all about turning a spectacular launch into a lasting legacy. And in the world of live service, that’s the hardest part.
