12 million players are celebrating, but not everyone will get a gift. ARC Raiders devs give away pickaxes and bans

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Official sales figures are a strong indicator of a game’s success. Embark Studios recently announced that their game, ARC Raiders, has sold a remarkable 12 million copies on all platforms.

Huge success for ARC Raiders

To mark this special occasion, the game developers are giving away a unique golden pickaxe! If you’ve played the game at any point since its release up until tonight, you’ll receive one. Originally, this gift was planned for when the game reached 10 million players, but the player base grew so quickly over the winter holidays that the developers actually passed that number without realizing it.

GamesRadar+ recently spoke with Virgil Watkins of Embark Studios about the impressive success of their game. Watkins shared that while he’s relieved the launch went well, he also feels a lot of pressure to meet the expectations of the many players. Now that some time has passed, the team has a clear idea of what to prioritize moving forward.

It’s great to see players still enjoying the game and inviting their friends to join. Knowing there’s continued interest definitely motivates us to keep improving and adding new content for them.

Even during testing, ARC Raiders generated a lot of buzz, but Embark Studios was still surprised by how incredibly popular the game became after it launched. The developers are still amazed by the consistently high number of players on Steam.

The speed at which this gained traction really surprised everyone. And how quickly it’s happening is also unexpected. We often run into each other and just express how unbelievable it all is. We’re proud of our work and enjoy it, but the overwhelming positive response is incredibly humbling.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-60575

Apart from the pickaxe, there are also bans

Embark Studios didn’t just give players a special pickaxe; they’ve also begun banning cheaters in ARC Raiders, as promised. Players on Reddit have reported receiving 30-day bans for violating the game’s rules. While many appreciate the action, some were hoping for harsher, permanent bans for those caught cheating.

If they are cheating, why isn’t it a permanent ban?

Only 1 month? I really hope they start giving longer bans for different types of cheating.

Instead of permanently banning cheaters, some people suggest more inventive punishments. A common idea is to put all the cheaters in the same game lobby, forcing them to compete only against each other. Other suggestions include limiting the items they can collect, constantly having enemy aircraft fly overhead, or filling the game map with endless fireballs. It remains to be seen whether Embark Studios will decide to use harsher penalties like these.

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2026-01-13 19:02