Arc Raiders is currently drawing five times more players than Battlefield 6

EA put a lot of pressure on performance in Battlefield 6, and it seems to have delivered, at least initially. While the latest Battlefield doesn't seem to have staying power, two months after its release, rival game Ark Raiders is doing a pretty good job of keeping its player base intact.

Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 both released in October and immediately racked up huge numbers on Steam. Around 750,000 people were playing Battlefield 6 at its peakAnd that's before its free-to-play battle royale mode joins the redsec party. Meanwhile, Arc Raiders peaked at nearly half a million concurrent players. Not as high as Battlefield, but just as, if not more impressive, since this is a completely new game and not the latest entry in the ongoing behemoth of a series.

People came for the battlefield, but they're staying for the Ark Raiders

What's even more impressive than the starting numbers for the respective games is how those numbers look today. While Battlefield's concurrent player count has fallen off a cliff, Ark Raiders is holding on. You could even argue that its numbers have improved, depending on how you frame it.

A raider swinging a crowbar across the screen in Arc Raiders.

Although there were 253,000 people playing Ark Raider on the day of release, that number continued to grow as more people learned of its existence and how good it could be. A week later, over 400,000 of you were playing Arc Raiders on Steam at the same time, and the game never looked back. While it never went much higher than that, It consistently hits over 400,000 players According to SteamDB, with people returning to the game every day.

One attacker hides behind cover while the other three search for him in the Ark Raiders.

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Battlefield 6's high concurrent peak is a distant memory

Although Battlefield 6 hit many highs, it failed to maintain those numbers. After hitting nearly 750,000 players when it launched, its numbers have been in steady decline, according to SteamDB. The launch of the first season in late October briefly saw Dice's newest entry in the Battlefield series reach 500,000 again, but since that point, Battlefield's player count has steadily dropped.

A tank and some soldiers on Battlefield 6.

While this is to be expected, and Ark Raiders is the outlier here, what's particularly concerning is the lack of impact RedSec has had on Battlefield numbers. Despite being free-to-play, Redsec had no effect on Battlefield 6's player count, at least not on Steam.

Fast forward to the end of December, and with over 400,000 people logging in and continuing to play Arc Raiders on Steam, Battlefield 6 is pulling in around 80,000 players per day. On the bright side, it looks like many of you may have been gifted Battlefield 6 for the holidays, as its daily peak has been slowly increasing since Christmas Eve.