Arc Raiders 2.0 Update Sends Player Count Soaring

Remember when everyone was writing off Arc Raiders? Yeah, turns out that was a bit premature. The extraction shooter just hit a seven-month high on Steam, and it's all thanks to the 2.0 update — officially called Frozen Trail — plus a free weekend that's got lapsed Raiders swinging back in like a certain wall-crawler.

Let's talk numbers. Arc Raiders once peaked at nearly 500,000 concurrent players on Steam, but since July it's been a struggle to crack 35,000 on PC. September was rough — the game bottomed out at just 10,000 players. But as of right now, 166,670 people are logged in on Steam alone. That's a number Embark hasn't seen since early April, and it's the first real spike since December 2025. Not bad for a game that many thought had fumbled its momentum.

So what's pulling everyone back? Frozen Trail launched October 8 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and it's the biggest content drop since Riven Tides back in April. The headline act is Pendola Pass, a snowy mountainous region beyond the usual Rust Belt stomping grounds. Players are reporting they can't even explore 15% of the map in an hour — it's that big. New Arc threats like the Bully, Skulker, and Hydra have shaken up combat, while the Tether Launcher lets you tie enemies to objects against their will. And then there's the Grappling Hook.

Oh, the Grappling Hook. It lets you attach to steep cliffs, flying Arc, basically anything, and players are calling it a Spider-Man simulator. One fan joked they were going to grab a new wall-running skill but remembered grappling hooks exist now — swinging around at 100mph with no stamina usage is apparently way more fun. The clips are already flooding social media, and the new Advanced Camera is helping capture all that chaos.

Reddit is eating it up. One popular post admitted, "I was not a believer. This is one of the best updates ever in a video game." The same player confessed they'd quit after Embark announced a twice-a-year update schedule, frustrated with the devs. Now they're back, admitting they were "flat out wrong" and excited for the future. Others are raving about the Frigate, a massive UFO-style Arc ship that one player compared to a Destiny raid. "It's no joke up there," they warned.

The free weekend runs through October 12, giving newcomers a chance to see what all the fuss is about. It's too early to say if this is a proper second wind, but the sudden surge in attention — and the flood of highlight reels — suggests Embark might have finally found its groove again. The devs took a gamble slowing things down to rework the divisive Expedition prestige system, and for now, it looks like players are rewarding them for it.

Will you be jumping back into Arc Raiders this weekend, or are you still on the fence? Let us know in the comments.