Arc Raiders hit with negative reviews following latest major update

Arc Raiders launched to huge success in late 2025 but the early months of 2026 have caused frustration for players. At this point, the game's user score on Steam has dropped to Mixed, due to an influx of negative reviews. 

Arc Raiders has been losing players consistently since January, just a couple of weeks after the Cold Snap update, which launched in late December. Since January, the game has dropped from a 400K+ peak concurrent player count on Steam to less than 100K in May 2026.

The reason? Fans have not been satisfied with the post-launch content updates. The Riven Tides update just dropped for Arc Raiders and after a few days, this update has resulted in an influx of negative user reviews on Steam, bringing the overall score down to ‘Mixed'. At launch, Arc Raiders had garnered a Very Positive user score.

One of the top complaints seems to be around game balancing and the developers taking the wrong lessons from player complaints. One example given in a top-rated Steam review says that when players complained about high-tier weapons having bad durability, Embark Studios decided to make lower-tier weapons weaker, rather than giving buffs to high-tier gear. Another top-rated user review also makes the claim that Embark is making its balance decisions based off spreadsheets rather than gameplay feel, resulting in puzzling decisions.

KitGuru Says: Embark Studios has faced similar issues before. It previously struggled to keep players engaged with The Finals despite a stellar launch. Maybe it is time for the studio to rethink its approach to post-launch content. 

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