ARC Raiders dominated Steam again last week, but indies also crushed it
An update on our Arc Raiders numbers, as well as metrics for last week's other top sellers, including a bunch of co-op, Dispatch, and a DLC. Great stuff.
ARC Raiders extracts 4M sold on Steam
ARC Raiders was Steam’s top weekly seller for the fourth week in a row, selling almost 750K copies ($25M in revenue) last week. This brings ARC’s total on Steam to 4M, as it quickly approaches 7M sold across all platforms.
Embark – learning from The Finals – implemented a strong content strategy for ARC from day one. The devs have demonstrated a lightning-fast response to feedback and push out patches and content updates quickly (new maps, enemies, events).
Arc averaged 1.6M DAUs on Steam across the last weekend – a retention figure that is down only a marginal 2% from the prior weekend. Very few lost Raiders of the Arc, it seems (sorry 🤠).
PEAK is about the cross 15M sold
PEAK continues its ascent, shifting another 316K copies last week ($1.7M). It’s also on the cusp of a major milestone: 15M copies sold.
I’m expecting an announcement soon.
PEAK’s recent price cut to $4.95 from November 5 to 18 was again timed with a free content update. This “force multiplier” loop (look, mum, I’m a consultant!) drove almost half of PEAK’s weekly sales in the first two days of last week.
It’s a smart loop:
PEAK’s $4.95 discount generates sales and CCUs: A deep discount instantly appeals to price-sensitive buyers and converts wishlisters in volume. This burst of sales activity helps give PEAK instant visibility.
The free Roots Update offered a new biome for the existing 14M owners, giving them a compelling reason to boot the game back up (with their mates – network effects). This again spiked CCUs and DAUs.
The synergy maximises charting (the multiplier): Steam’s primary visibility charts favour games that show sales volume and high active player count. The free update for lapsed players and low price for new ones catapults PEAK higher up the charts than either strategy could achieve alone.
The positive feedback loop: High chart placement leads to more visibility, which leads to more copies sold, which increases the player base and the likelihood of PEAK remaining in the charts.
You can see the spike in action for the Roots Update below:
Indies and a DLC make up the rest of the top 5
As for the remainder of the ranking:
RV There Yet? sold 312K copies last week and is nearing 4M overall. RV, like PEAK, taps into the so-called “friendslop” trend, offering chaotic, physics-based co-op gameplay that’s inherently hilarious. The premise – driving a rickety RV through dangerous backcountry using winches and basic survival items – guarantees emergent, scream-at-your-mates moments. This made it instantly popular with high-profile content creators, driving massive exposure and converting viewers to players via its low $7.99 price. There’s a growing audience for these kinds of low-priced co-op games – regardless of genre. Around half of RV players also played R.E.P.O. (51.5%) or PEAK (49.5%).
Risk of Rain 2’s Alloyed Collective DLC sold 216K copies on Steam last week after launching on Tuesday. Risk of Rain 2, which is nearing 10M sold on Steam, is a third-person roguelike where players battle hordes of increasingly difficult monsters across alien environments to escape a planet. The new DLC added a hefty chunk of content, including two new characters, a new Final Boss, and seven new stages. The Collective DLC’s initial attach rate sits at about 2.25%, which will probably climb, targeting the strong precedent set by last year’s Seeker of the Storm DLC, which peaked near a 10% attach rate. Oh, and base Risk of Rain 2 also has a steep 66%-off promo right now (there’s that force multiplier strat again)
Dispatch sold 214K copies on Steam last week (and 520K in the past two weeks) following the finale on Nov 12. It’s an interactive TV show, and the writing, voice acting, pacing, and animation are SUPERB. Unlike the long waits common in episodic choose-your-own adventure games, Dispatch took cues from prestige TV, releasing two episodes a week for a month. This cadence helped word-of-mouth marketing stack between drops, with sustained buzz and driving sales for over a month, rather than fading after launch week. I’m a lurker on the subreddit and saw the post-episode discussion and theorising first-hand. It was a shared cultural event. Dispatch has generated $50M+ in gross revenue across all platforms.
So, so, soooooo deserved.
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