Updated: Jan 13, 2026

ARC Raiders isn’t just having a strong launch window — it’s sustaining momentum at a pace most big shooters would envy. Publisher Nexon says Embark Studios’ extraction adventure has now sold more than 12.4 million copies in 10 weeks, and it’s marking the moment with a free in-game reward for the entire playerbase.

The headline number is eye-catching on its own, but the player-count story might be even louder: Nexon says the game hit a new concurrent player peak of 960,000 in January 2026. For a game that’s already weathered the usual post-launch drop-off pressure, that kind of peak suggests one thing: people didn’t just buy in — they stuck around.

Nexon’s explanation for the surge is a familiar cocktail, but the mix appears to be working: holiday demand, big storefront visibility, awards-season buzz, and — crucially — a steady cadence of updates that keeps the loop feeling alive instead of “solved.” If you’ve played any extraction shooter long enough, you know how rare that is.

Free reward: how to claim the Gilded Pickaxe

To celebrate, Embark is handing out a limited-time freebie: the Gilded Pickaxe Raider Tool. Nexon says anyone who has logged in at least once since launch will receive it in their in-game inbox, with distribution beginning January 13 at 11:00 CET.

Haven’t jumped in yet? There’s still a window. New players can qualify by booting the game before 23:59 CET on January 13. Log in, check your inbox, equip the tool, and you’re set.

Official game site (for updates and announcements): ARC Raiders.

How big is this, really?

Nexon’s milestone announcement puts ARC Raiders in the same rare air as the modern shooter success stories people actually talk about at the end of the year. To frame the pace, Nexon points to other major releases in the “premium-priced, massively social” lane — the kind where 10–12 million sold is considered a benchmark, not a bonus.

The company also leaned into a more important point than raw sales: retention. In plain English, they’re arguing this isn’t a quick burst that fades — it’s a playerbase that keeps showing up. That matters in an extraction game, where the real product isn’t the box sale — it’s the living ecosystem of raids, rivalries, alliances, and emergent chaos.

Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund credited the community’s role in shaping what comes next, describing the 12.4 million milestone as a “huge landmark” that wouldn’t exist without player energy, ideas, and momentum.

What’s happening inside the game right now

Part of ARC Raiders’ staying power is that it keeps giving people something to talk about — sometimes for the best reasons (new content beats, build variety, meta shifts), and sometimes because live games are messy. This month, Embark has been in the spotlight for gameplay systems that shape who you run into, and for ongoing “fair play” pressure that hits every popular online shooter sooner or later.

On the matchmaking side, the studio has acknowledged the game uses behavior signals to influence the kinds of lobbies players end up in — a system widely discussed as “aggression-based matchmaking.” The goal, as supporters describe it, is to keep the experience from collapsing into constant PvP ambushes for players who mostly want tense scavenging and risky escapes.

Meanwhile, the game’s popularity has also put a harsher spotlight on exploits and cheating claims — including high-profile streamer complaints — which has pushed Embark to ship quick fixes and clamp down on anything that undermines competitive integrity. That tug-of-war is practically a rite of passage for breakout multiplayer hits.

Source

Nexon milestone release (official details on sales, peak concurrency, and timing): Business Wire: Nexon Reports ARC Raiders Passes 12.4-Million-Unit Milestone

Note: Times listed are in CET as stated by the publisher. Convert to your local time if needed.