Nine months after launch, ARC Raiders sits in an odd spot. It has sold more than 16 million copies and still ranks among Steam’s busiest games. Its recent review score slipped this spring, though, and Embark Studios has cut back to two big updates a year. Here is the status check for July 28, 2026.
Short version: this is a paid PvPvE extraction shooter from Embark Studios, out since October 30, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. It costs $39.99. More than 16 million copies have sold; Steam still runs tens of thousands of concurrent players, and the next big content drop lands in October.
| Details about ARC Raiders | Where it stands on July 28, 2026 |
| Developer and publisher | Embark Studios, owned by Nexon |
| Release date | October 30, 2025 |
| Genre | Third-person PvPvE extraction shooter, solo, duo, or trio |
| Platforms | Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, GeForce NOW |
| Standard price | $39.99 |
| Deluxe price | $59.99 |
| Lowest Steam sale price so far | $29.99 |
| Subscription services | Not on Game Pass or PlayStation Plus |
| ESRB rating | T for Teen. Violence and Blood. In-Game Purchases |
| Latest patch | Store Update 1.39.0, July 21, 2026 |
| Current season | Trials Season 5, running to September 30, 2026 |
| Next major update | Frozen Trail, October 2026 |
Key takeaways
- You pay once. There are no battle pass fees and no subscription tier.
- Crossplay is by default across PC and both current consoles.
- Steam concurrents in July 2026 sit far below the launch peak but stay in the tens of thousands.
- The review score turned Mixed in May after a rough balance patch.
- Nothing major ships until the Frozen Trail in October, so the summer is quiet on purpose.
Where ARC Raiders Stands in July 2026
The ARC Raiders live calendar is busier than the roadmap suggests. ARC Raiders Store Update 1.39.0 went out on July 21, and Trials Season 5, called Prove Your Mettle, started on July 7 and runs through September 30. Complete the season’s objectives to earn the Scorta outfit, while the red and blue variants are reserved for the highest-ranked ARC Raiders players.
Two days remain at the crossover event with THE FINALS, Embark’s another shooter. Contracts completed in that game before July 30 hand over the Azimuth outfit and an Archeologist backpack. Miss the window, and no second chance has been announced. Our gaming news and release coverage tracks these crossover windows as they open.
Expedition four ran from July 7 to July 21. Expeditions are the game’s soft reset: sign up, clear departure objectives, then carry a little progress forward. This one traded skill points for blueprints and 150 Raider Tokens per objective, plus twelve extra stash slots that stay with you.
What ARC Raiders costs in 2026
It is not free. That answer has not changed since Embark dropped its original free-to-play plan before launch.
- Standard edition: $39.99 on Steam, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
- Deluxe edition: $59.99, which adds the Astro Bundle of cosmetics.
- Best price so far: $29.99, a 20 percent cut that has reappeared several times through 2026.
No subscription covers it. It has never appeared on Game Pass or the PlayStation Plus catalog, and Nexon has given no sign that will change. If you want the full dollar figure for a trio of friends at list price, it is roughly $120 before tax.
After that, the only spending is cosmetic. The store refreshes most weeks and runs on premium currency bought in bundles. That is why the ESRB flags In-Game Purchases alongside the Teen rating.
Treat that currency like cash. The Federal Trade Commission ordered Epic Games to refund $245 million over unwanted in-game charges. In June 2025, the regulator sent more than $126 million to 969,173 people.
Platforms, crossplay and cross-progression
Five ways to play, and no last-generation consoles among them. PC buyers get Steam and the Epic Games Store; console players get PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and GeForce NOW streams it too, almost anything else. There is no PS4, Xbox One, or Switch version, and none has been announced.
Crossplay runs by default across all of them, so a PC player can squad with friends on either console. You can disable it in the settings, but the game does not offer a console-only pool, so queues get slower rather than fairer. Cross-progression works through an Embark ID: link your accounts and your level, loot and stats follow you. Premium currency is the exception, since platform holders keep wallets separate.
Console owners weighing an upgrade before the Frozen Trail will find our PS5 release and performance guides a useful next stop.
How many people play it now
Steam is the only platform with public numbers. During a routine July 2026 check, SteamDB showed 24,647 players in game with a 24-hour peak of 35,727. Other trackers caught highs near 48,600 that week. All-time peak: 481,966 concurrent players on November 16, 2025.
So, the current player counts sit at roughly five to ten percent of that launch peak. That reads worse than it is. Steam still ranked it twelfth by daily active users at that check, and consoles are not counted at all. Nexon reported more than one million concurrent players across every platform during the launch window.
Sales tell the healthier half of the story. Four million copies moved by November 11, 2025, and fourteen million by February 2026. Nexon pushed the total past sixteen million with its first quarter results in May. Competitive players tracking the Trials ladder may also want our esports tournament and pro team coverage.
Why the Steam review score slipped to Mixed
Overall reviews still read Very Positive, at 84 percent of 190,432 English language entries and 396,031 across all languages. Recent reviews are a different picture: Mixed, at 58 percent of 8,248 entries over the last 30 days.
The turn came after Riven Tides, the April 27 update that closed out the first roadmap. It added a coastal map on the western edge of the Rust Belt, the floating ARC Turbine enemy, and a beachcombing mechanic built around the Dockmaster’s Detector. Players shrugged at the map itself. Weapon durability changes drew something louder.
Player complaints centered on decay and repair costs. Low-level weapons wore fast; wild spawns arrived nearly broken, and repairs ate the resources people wanted to spend fighting. Embark acknowledged the feedback in its patch notes and raised ARC Turbine loot values in the July update.
Performance grumbles followed too. Some PC players reported lower frame rates after Live Update 1.36.0, and Xbox Series S crashes sit on the known issues list. Weighing hardware refresh? Our equipment guides and gear reviews cover the parts that matter here.
The update schedule has changed. Frozen Trail is next
On May 13, 2026, Embark published a development post explaining a switch away from monthly updates. Two major updates a year, each larger, is the new plan. The executive producer’s reasoning was blunt: the monthly cycle limited how much each update could change, and it was not sustainable for the team.
A separate live service team keeps the lights on between those drops. Balance passes, bug fixes, store refreshes, and player events continue, which is exactly what July has looked like. Frozen Trail arrives in October and is billed as the biggest update since launch. Embark has confirmed a large new map area and tougher ARC enemies with fresh behavior.
A reworked skill tree comes too, along with higher progression ceilings for the Raider Den, plus story content on where ARC came from. New weapons, items, and instruments round it out. For new buyers, that timing is the real decision point.
Matchmaking sorts by playstyle, not skill
This one gets reported wrong constantly. Embark’s May 20 notes state that the system is playstyle-based rather than skill-based. It places every player on a scale from cooperative to heavily PvP-focused, then groups of people likely to enjoy the same round.
Two details matter. Starting a fight now counts differently from defending yourself, and quiet rounds carry less weight. Live Update 1.36.0 also split that tracking by squad size, so switching between solo, duo, and trio no longer drags your profile around with you.
Is it worth buying in 2026?
Buy now if you want to learn the maps before Frozen Trail lands, or if a $29.99 sale shows up. Queues fill quickly in this population. Crossplay keeps consoles and PC in one pool, and a full season of Trials runs until September 30.
Wait until October if you bounce off other extraction shooters, or you care about fresh content. A progression of rework and a new map area will make that a better first impression than the current build. Either way, watch the durability changes in the next balance pass.
Frequently asked questions
No. It costs $39.99 for the standard edition and $59.99 for the deluxe. Embark announced a free-to-play model back in 2021, then changed course before release.
No. It has not appeared on either service, and neither Nexon nor Embark has announced plans to add it.
Yes. Crossplay is enabled by default across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Cross-progression follows your Embark ID, though premium currency stays on the platform where you bought it.
Raids run up to about 30 minutes on the surface. You loot, dodge machines and other players, then leave through an extraction point such as an elevator, metro station, air shaft or raider hatch.
Trials Season 5 closes on September 30, 2026. The Frozen Trail follows in October.
