Arc Raiders Updates Will Only Come Twice A Year

Roughly seven months ago, Arc Raiders was all the rage, climbing to 481,966 players on PC alone within its first few days on the market, highlighting the potential that extraction shooters have and the grip that a good live-service title can have on the market.

Flash forward to today, and Arc Raiders, while not entirely a shell of itself, has not come close to those numbers since. In fact, its 24-hour peak sits at 96,718 players, and as of this writing 89,281 are currently playing the game via Steam, per data at SteamDB.

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By Harry Alston

That dwindling base has seemingly shifted Embark Studios' thinking when it comes to the live-service extraction shooter, as in a new post shared online, the title is no longer set to receive monthly content updates. Instead, Arc Raiders is shifting to a twice-a-year approach.

Arc Raiders Is Shifting Its Content Strategy From What Was Once Promised

"When ARC Raiders launched, we planned to offer monthly updates," a blog post outlined. "The intention was to keep you all engaged, to ensure the game always felt fresh, and to give you reasons to keep braving topside. But once the game was in players' hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for ARC Raiders requires more transformative updates."

However, the "pressure" of monthly updates has limited how impactful they can be. So, moving forward, they will now come twice a year, with the goal of them being bigger and more impactful.

"Don’t worry, a dedicated live service team will continue running ARC Raiders day-to-day: regular live updates, plus balance fixes, bug fixes, store updates, and player events aren't going anywhere," the post warned.

The end goal is for Embark to be able to invest "more deeply" in the overall health of Arc Raiders, including everything from progression to anti-cheat.

"We know these are foundational to the experience, especially in a game where every encounter and extraction matters," the update concluded.

Given that Arc Raiders categorizes itself as a live-service game, the idea that major updates would only come twice a year is certainly not in line with the spirit of the genre itself. Though the game debuted at "Very Positive" status on Steam, it's since had its most recent reviews trend in "Mixed" territory.

Ultimately, only time will tell if enough of the base hangs around for the major updates, or if Arc Raiders will join other live-service titles in being sunset all too soon.