The tail end of 2025 has been particularly exciting for fans of shooter games, with Battlefield 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and ARC Raiders all bringing players varied and content-rich experiences for both PvE and PvP.
Of the three titles, ARC Raiders has arguably become the hottest game of the holidays, with Embark Studios' keeping close to Battlefield's overall player count while also dominating the streaming scene on Twitch and other viewing platforms.
ARC Raiders has taken the gaming world by storm
Though the strong performance of ARC Raiders wasn't exactly a surprise — multiple pre-release betas drew in a ton of players and built up a significant amount of hype — what it's been able to achieve in just one month since its October 30 launch has nevertheless been very impressive to see.
It's held the lead position on Steam's Top Sellers chart for four weeks straight, selling 4 million copies on Valve's platform and rapidly approaching 7 million sales total. It also remains one of the most-played games on Steam right now, with its SteamDB data showing it routinely averages between 300-400K concurrent players.
The success of the title mostly stems from its balance of tense moment-to-moment third-person shooter gameplay with relatively forgiving mechanics, bringing its players the thrill of the "explore, loot, kill, extract" extraction shooter gameplay loop without making death and failure overly frustrating.
Compared to most of PvE elements in other extraction shooters, ARC Raiders' ARC robots are also considerably more advanced and engaging by comparison, with multiple different unit types that each have their own strengths and weaknesses to play around and exploit.
Another thing that makes ARC Raiders so addicting is the unpredictable nature of your encounters with other players, as other Raiders scavenging the game's post-apocalyptic world just like you are can choose to help or harm you at any moment — and you can do the same with them. Alongside engagements you have with ARC enemies, these dynamic experiences guarantee that no two expeditions ever play out the same way.
All in all, it's just an awesome game, and a great one to play whether you want to brave the ARC-infested surface of Earth alone or with a squad of friends. It makes for an excellent gift for any friends and family who are gamers — and thanks to this limited-time Black Friday sale, you can pick up the title for the lowest price it's sold for since launch.
More Black Friday 2025 - quick links
- All our TOP recommended Black Friday deals: Just the best
- Mini PC deals: up to 47% off tiny PCs
- GPU deals: early price drops on NVIDIA RTX before they go up
- Microsoft Surface deals: save up to $500 on premium PCs
- Xbox accessories: best deals on gadgets for your Xbox Series X|S and PC
- Gaming laptop deals: the best laptops for the best price
- Xbox controllers: our top picks for best controller deals
- ANC headphones: great Black Friday deals on the best ANC headphones
Even more Black Friday deals: - Walmart: 7 top laptop deals you shouldn't miss
- Dell deals: 13 deals from Dell.com that we personally picked
- Samsung monitors: the best Samsung display deals we've found
- Retro gaming: handhelds, arcade machines, old school consoles, and more
- Gamer merch: Blizzard’s Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo IV collectibles
- Game keys: 10 PC game codes are even cheaper at Loaded (formerly CDKeys)
- Accessories: Even more PC accessories starting at $17
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