Arc Raiders Makes Surprise Cameo in South Park
- Sagar Mankar
- Dec 1
- 2 min read
Arc Raiders stepped into the spotlight once again this week, earning a brief but memorable cameo in the latest episode of South Park.
The popular extraction shooter has been riding a strong wave of attention ever since its October launch, and now it’s crossed into mainstream pop culture in a way many games can only dream of.
The cameo appeared in Season 28’s Thanksgiving episode, Turkey Trot. In the episode, Tolkien Black is shown casually lounging on a couch, controller in hand, replying “Playing Arc Raiders” when Cartman storms in and demands to know what he’s doing. The show even plays the game’s familiar gunfire audio before Cartman pulls the plug on a console that suspiciously resembles an Xbox 360, despite Arc Raiders releasing two generations later. Classic South Park humor.
The backstory behind the cameo is almost as entertaining as the moment itself. Marketing lead Ashley St. Germain shared on LinkedIn that the South Park team reached out to Embark Studios just two days before the episode aired. As per St. Germain’s post, the creators asked for permission on Monday, got footage on Tuesday, and featured the game on Wednesday. That’s an incredibly fast turnaround, but it also shows how eager the show was to include the hit shooter in their Thanksgiving storyline.
This isn’t the first time South Park has shown some love to video games. Fans will remember classics like Make Love, Not Warcraft, the Guitar Hero parody, and nods to Metal Gear Solid V. The show has even spawned its own games, like South Park: The Stick of Truth, which leaned heavily on humor over gameplay.
Arc Raiders has been one of 2025’s most talked-about releases, even securing a nomination for Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2025 alongside giants like Battlefield 6 and Elden Ring: Nightreign. According to SteamDB, its player base has continued to grow, drawing more than 300k CCU daily despite being a premium game.