ARC Raiders Pushes Steam to Its Highest-Grossing December Yet at $1.6 Billion, per Analyst Estimates

If you’re sick of hearing about ARC Raiders’ success, whether it’s apparently reaching a new lifetime sales milestone or its peak concurrent player count on Steam, too bad. A new report by Alinea Analytics estimates that Embark Studios’ breakout extraction shooter helped catapult Steam to its most successful December ever with $1.6 billion gross revenue.

Not only is this a reported 22.7 percent increase year-over-year, but it surpassed the previous record holder ($1.4 billion in December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic). Overall, Steam had more than 100 million players throughout the month.

No, not everyone was playing ARC Raiders – you don’t need Alinea to tell you that – but it was the top-selling title on the storefront from December 21st to January 4th, 2026. During that period, it reportedly sold 1.2 million copies, bringing the lifetime Steam total to 7 million.

Such is the momentum of the extraction shooter that it apparently sold 250,000 copies on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, alone. Not bad, especially when bigger-name competitors like Battlefield 6 have been lacking.

As for what’s next, Embark Studios hasn’t really said much, aside from CEO Patrick Söderlund revealing that various studios are interested in film and TV adaptations. Perhaps we’ll learn more later this month, especially as its developers return from the Holidays, so stay tuned.