ARC Raiders Hits All‑Time High on Steam but Faces Queue Issues

ARC Raiders is off to a record-breaking start, but its servers are struggling to keep up with the massive wave of players logging in.

ARC Raiders Crosses 350K Concurrent Players | Credit: SteamDB

On Sunday afternoon, just as the game hit over 330,000 concurrent players on Steam, reports of matchmaking errors and long queue times began to surface. According to PC Gamer, players were facing delays of five to ten minutes just to get into a match. Considering ARC Raiders is also available on consoles and other storefronts, the actual server load is likely even higher than what Steam numbers suggest.

The situation was visible in real time on SteamDB. After peaking at 337,834 concurrent players, the count dropped sharply to around 286,000 within an hour, suggesting many players were either disconnected or gave up trying to log back in.

On Reddit, frustrated fans shared screenshots of error messages, while Twitch streams showed creators stuck waiting in queues. The official Discord even had to impose a 15-minute cooldown on posts in the main chat to manage the flood of complaints.

Despite the chaos, plenty of players are still managing to get into matches. Some have even turned the situation into humor, jokingly calling ARC Raiders a “queue simulator.” Others vented their frustration with tongue-in-cheek comments about “exploding” if servers didn’t stabilize soon. It’s the kind of reaction you’d expect when a game becomes too popular for its own good.

Embark Studios hasn’t issued an official statement yet. At one point, the game reached 354,836 concurrent players on Steam, putting it in the same league as heavyweights like GTA 5, Starfield, and Monster Hunter: World. That’s no small feat for a brand-new IP.

Embark has already shared a roadmap outlining upcoming content and has promised long-term support for the game.