Player retention is often the clearest indicator of a multiplayer game’s long-term health and Steam’s numbers paint a revealing picture.
Within months of release, two multiplayer shooters told radically different stories on Steam: one lost the vast majority of its players, while the other managed to keep almost all of them.
Battlefield 6: A Strong Launch Followed by a Sharp Drop
Battlefield 6 was one of the most anticipated releases of 2025 and for good reason. At launch, the game attracted roughly 750,000 players, while both critics and fans hailed it as a long-awaited return to form for the franchise after the disappointing Battlefield 2042. However, only a few months after release, the title had already lost around 85 percent of its original Steam player base. This raises an obvious question: what went wrong?
Within the community, several recurring points of criticism have emerged. Many players argue that new content arrives too slowly for a live-service title. Three new maps within the first two months, some say, feel underwhelming for a game designed around frequent updates. While progression systems have seen improvements, they are still widely described as shallow and lacking long-term motivation. Others have taken issue with cosmetic skins that clash with the game’s intended tone and atmosphere.
Taken together, these factors help explain why parts of the player base moved on. At the same time, losing a significant portion of players is not unusual for live-service games. Yet there is at least one recent example that suggests a very different outcome is possible.
ARC Raiders and the Power of Player Retention
ARC Raiders, on the other hand, continues to thrive. The game reached its peak in November with nearly 482,000 concurrent players. Even in January, its 24-hour peak still exceeds 460,000 players, resulting in a retention rate of over 90 percent.
This is particularly impressive for a title developed by a relatively unknown studio, operating in a genre that was far from mainstream before its release. Retaining such a large player base over several months is no small feat, which raises the obvious question: why has ARC Raiders succeeded where Battlefield 6 struggled? There are many possible explanations, but prominent FPS streamer Shroud offered one notable perspective on the game’s stable player numbers:
“This might be a hot take: I think it’s being carried by Peanut. The amount of normies that Peanut pulls into the game is crazy. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of people.”
However, the game’s visibility does not rely on a single creator. Streamers such as TimTheTatman, NickMercs, Nadeshot, HutchMF and Cloakzy continue to stream ARC Raiders regularly.
This sustained creator interest suggests more than temporary hype. It indicates that the core gameplay loop remains engaging and that ARC Raiders continues to be a game audiences actively want to watch. Unlike Battlefield 6, where declining engagement and content fatigue have become recurring concerns, ARC Raiders appears to maintain both player and viewer interest months after launch. Whether these player numbers will decline in the coming months remains to be seen, but for now, there are few signs of a significant drop.
Do you still play Battlefield 6, or have you moved on to ARC Raiders? Let us know in the comments.
