Arc Raiders already has servers slammed by almost 100,000 players in two hours, as weekend playtest starts

The Arc Raiders server slam has begun. The much-anticipated third-person extraction shooter has only been available to play for roughly two hours (at time of writing), and it’s already nearing 100,000 concurrent players.

This server slam is the final chance for interested players to check the game out before it launches on the 30th October, at which point you’ll have to buy the game for £30.99 / $39.99 / €39.99. The purpose of this test is, as the name implies, to push the servers as hard as possible before the full release.

Arc Raiders already had a public test back in April. It was hard to account for how popular the test was, given its multi-platform availability. Instead, it’s perhaps better to compare today’s weekend play test to other games’ recent open betas.

Compare it to Dune: Awakening. This game was a massive presence on Steam during its open beta, quickly reaching roughly 150,000 concurrent users on Steam on its opening day. Arc Raiders looks to be on track to pass the bar Dune: Awakening set, a good indicator of its popularity.

It is of course unfair to compare Arc Raiders to the most recent beta powerhouse of Battlefield 6, which had 250,000 players waiting to play in its open beta across all platforms. Now, no one is expecting Arc Raiders to hit that level of popularity during a weekend play test, but peeking at where it lands this weekend between Dune: Awakening and Battlefield 6 could give a glimpse as to its eventual popularity when it goes premium.

These are, of course, different genres of games which must be taken into account. As an extraction game, Arc Raiders’ biggest competitors are likely Escape From Tarkov, which is set to get a Steam release in November, or it might also be Marathon, though it remains indefinitely delayed following a plagiarism controversy.

Either way, this weekend is your last chance to check out Arc Raiders before it comes out in full later this month. If you do hop in or have played it before, pop down below and let us know what you think of it. The Arc Raiders playtest this weekend is playable on PC via Steam and Epic, Xbox, and PS5. Nothing you collect will carry over to the full game, so just hop in and have a good time.