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Arc Raiders has sold an incredible 12.4 million copies in just 10 weeks, publisher Nexon has announced. And to celebrate, developer Embark Studios is giving all players a free in-game gift.
Embark Studios’ enormously popular extraction shooter has seen impressive staying power, too, setting a new concurrent player peak of 960,000 in January 2026.
The publisher says success comes not just from holiday sales but also promotions across the major digital retailers, such as Steam, and numerous end-of-year awards, including IGN’s Best Shooter Game of 2025 accolade. It also recognized Embark’s “steady stream of content updates” as critical to sustaining player engagement, too.
To put Arc Raiders’ success into context, the similarly priced Helldivers 2 set a record for the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time by selling 12 million in 12 weeks. Arc Raiders, which launched on Xbox as well as PC and PlayStation, hit the 12 million sales mark even faster.
To celebrate the milestone, Embark is offering a free in-game reward, the Gilded Pickaxe is available to all players for a limited time. Any player who has logged onto the game at least once since launch will receive the gift to their in-game inbox on January 13, at 11am CET. If you’ve not played yet, make sure you boot up before 23.59 CET on January 13 to get your Gilded Pickaxe Raider Tool.
“Hitting 12.4 million units is a huge landmark — and it wouldn’t have happened without our players,” said Patrick Söderlund, founder and CEO of Embark Studios. “The community of raiders has been part of this journey from the start, and their ideas and enthusiasm continue to guide where the game goes next.”
Nexon reckons part of Arc Raiders’ success comes from Embark delivering “exactly what players worldwide have expected from the game,” and hailed it a “fresh, highly differentiated experience in a massive global game genre.”
IGN’s Arc Raiders review returned a 9/10. We said: “With polished gunplay and an irresistible grind, Arc Raiders sets a new standard for extraction shooters,” and we’re not the only ones having a good time — it sold over four million copies worldwide within two weeks of launch, cementing its commercial success. It’s done so well, in fact, that it’s crossed over into the world of South Park with a surprise appearance that was put together in just a few days.
If you’ve been finding it a little trickier just lately, that may be because you play a lot of PvP — Embark Studios recently confirmed one of the community’s biggest questions since the game came out: it does indeed feature ‘aggression-based matchmaking.’
If this has tempted you into giving Arc Raiders a try, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates… or you can just wait for the inevitable TV show or movie adaptation, although the team says it hasn’t been swayed just yet.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
