Arc Raiders tops Kick streaming charts as players fall in love with the extraction shooter

Sci-fi extraction shooter Arc-Raiders is dominating streaming sites Kick and Twitch, as the latest innovation in looting and shooting captivates gamers.

Released yesterday (Oct. 30), after a widely praised beta, Arc Raiders has shot to the top of the gaming categories on streaming sites. At the time of writing, the game had around 125,000 viewers on Twitch, and 50k. In both cases, this made it the top game category.

Arc Raiders is the most viewed non-esports game on Kick and Twitch

While Arc Raiders dips to the second or third place on Twitch while League of Legends Worlds is playing, on Kick, the Tarkov-like has stayed as the top gaming category, beating out League of Legends, Dota 2, GTA 5 RP, and even Battlefield 6.

On Twitch, creators like CohhCarnage top the list, with over 15k concurrent viewers, while on Kick, Tim the Tatman, dobrodziej, Cem “Mithrain” Karako , and Ferit “wtcN” Karakaya are some of the most popular creators. The Turkish pair of wtcN and Mithrain are particular notable, as according to Stream Charts, they’ve already amassed almost 100k hours watched of the game so far.

Image Credit: Embark Studios

It’s not hard to see why Arc Raiders is so compelling: Tense, Escape from Tarkov-like gameplay, with a more accessible edge. And that accessibility comes in multiple forms. Firstly, Arc Raiders is simply less punishing than some of the other entries in the extraction shooter subgenre, and that means players who aren’t online 24/7 can effectively play the game.

Secondly, its the price point and platform. Arc Raiders is on Steam, and at just over $30. That makes it a deal vs. Escape from Tarkov’s $60 price point, and much more accessible given most PC gamers are Steam users.

Similarly, players are already looking to find something meaty in the extraction shooter genre. Light-hearted parody, Escape from Dukov is still the fifth most-played game on Steam. Arc Raiders is only a few steps behind, and rapidly rising. In fact, of non-free-to-play games on steam, Arc Raiders currently sits in the top 3 most-played, behind only Duckov and Battlefield 6.

As a result, players are turning to streaming services to figure out how to get better, to enjoy the game while they’re not playing, and to decide whether to pick it up themselves. It’s Arc Raiders is a phenomenon and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Featured Image Credit: Embark Studios