As of July 2026, ARC Raiders has sold over 16 million copies. Embark Studios has shifted to a biannual major update schedule, with the 'Frozen Trail' update planned for October 2026.
ARC Raiders, the extraction shooter from Embark Studios, has sold over 16 million copies as of July 2026. The studio announced a shift from monthly to biannual major updates, with the 'Frozen Trail' update arriving in October 2026 as the largest update yet, adding a new map, enemies, and progression systems. A 25% off Steam sale accompanied the announcement.
At NDC26, Embark's machine learning lead Martin detailed how the studio uses ML for recommendations, quest generation, and enemy behavior in both ARC Raiders and The Finals. The talk highlighted organizational challenges: a simple EASE recommendation model increased purchasers by 400% in The Finals, but the project nearly failed until an engineer physically moved to the commercial team.
In May 2026, Japanese game media outlets Game*Spark and AUTOMATON held a self-organized competition in ARC Raiders, collecting duck toys on the 'Buried City (Bird City)' map. AUTOMATON won 77 to 35. The loser had to donate high-rarity items, but a mistake left the AUTOMATON editor stranded without an extraction key, causing the items to be lost to other players. The event was not an official game mode but demonstrated emergent player-driven narratives.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every fact links the story it came from.
Embark Studios is running a 25% off Steam sale for extraction shooter ARC Raiders, which has sold over 16 million copies. The studio also detailed the 'Frozen Trail' update, arriving in October 2026 as the largest update yet, following a shift from monthly to biannual major updates. The update adds a new map, enemies, and progression systems.
At NDC26, Embark Studios machine learning lead Martin detailed how the studio uses ML for recommendations, quest generation, and enemy behavior. A key takeaway was that a simple EASE recommendation model increased purchasers by 400% in The Finals, but organizational hurdles nearly killed the project until an engineer physically moved desks to the commercial team.
Japanese game media outlets Game*Spark and AUTOMATON held a collaborative event in the extraction shooter 'ARC Raiders' on May 29, 2026, that ended with a direct competition over in-game duck toys. The event followed a previous co-op session where an AUTOMATON editor betrayed a Game*Spark writer, creating a grudge. For the rematch, the two editors ran solo raids for one hour on the 'Buried City (Bird City)' map, collecting duck toys of varying rarities for points. AUTOMATON won with 77 points against Game*Spark's 35. The loser, Game*Spark's writer, had to donate high-rarity items from their stash to the winner in a subsequent raid, but a mistake left the AUTOMATON editor stranded without an extraction key, resulting in the items being lost to other players. The event was not an official game mode but a self-organized challenge.