Comparisons between ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6 should come as no surprise to anyone—both are multiplayer shooters that, while different in scale and gameplay, came out in the same month (not to mention former DICE developers working at Embark). Both titles also saw immense success on launch, with incredible sales figures and concurrent player numbers. However, as spotted by Forbes’ Paul Tassi, their Steam player counts have gone in surprisingly different trajectories.
While both games had tremendous player numbers, with ARC Raiders peaking at around 481,966 concurrent players back in November and Battlefield 6 hitting an all-time peak of 747,440 concurrent players back in October per SteamDB, both titles have naturally seen some drop-off. ARC Raiders has seemingly managed to retain a larger number of players, with the 24-hour peak sitting at around 428,000 concurrent players. Battlefield 6, on the other hand, has seen a much sharper decline, with its recent 24-hour peak sitting at around 119,000 concurrent players.
Overall, the latter has managed to retain around 16 percent of its player base. Meanwhile, Embark’s extraction shooter retained 90 percent of its players, which is fairly impressive.
Nevertheless, Battlefield 6 amassing over 100,000 concurrent players daily is still an impressive feat, and the title is certainly at no risk of dying off. Since both shooters were released, they have also seen plenty of updates that not only brought in bug fixes and balance changes, but also new content. ARC Raiders saw the release of the Cold Snap update just last month, which brought with it an entirely new weather effect that could affect gameplay. Battlefield 6, on the other hand, is currently in the midst of its first season, which was kicked off in late-October.
When it comes to sales figures, ARC Raiders was announced to have sold over four million copies in its first two weeks. On the other hand, Circana’s sales data from November indicated that Battlefield 6 had already become the best-selling game of 2025 in the US, while also becoming the most successful release in the franchise.
While ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6 might both be seeing immense levels of success, Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has seemingly failed to do so despite topping US sales charts in November. Analysts have noted that the low player numbers for the latest entry can largely be blamed on Activision’s own missteps, as well as the title being released in a crowded market.
For more details on how the two multiplayer shooters are affecting Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, check out our thoughts.
