Escape from Duckov is a hit on Steam

In a market saturated with hardcore extraction shooters, a charmingly absurd parody has just waddled its way to the top of the Steam charts. Escape from Duckov, a top-down PvE looter shooter featuring heavily armed ducks, has become an overnight sensation since its launch on October 16th.

Developed by Team Soda, known for Snake Force and Soda Crisis, the game blends familiar extraction mechanics like raiding, looting, upgrading, with a quirky duck theme. Although it might seem a bit ridiculous on paper, it seems players can't get enough. According to the developer, the game sold over 500,000 copies in just its first three days.

The concurrent player numbers are equally staggering. SteamDB figures show the game has already hit a peak of over 182,000 players online simultaneously, placing it among Steam's most played games right now, but still behind behemoths like Counter-Strike 2, Battlefield 6, and Arc Raiders. This makes it the fourth best-selling game on the platform at the time of writing. Moreover, user reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, currently sitting at 95% favourable across nearly 7,000 reviews worldwide. While a significant portion of the player base is in China, the game's simple premise and addictive loop have clearly resonated worldwide.

Another ingredient for its success might be pricing. It launched at just £18, with a 12% discount currently bringing it down to £15.83 until October 30th. For that price, players are getting a surprisingly deep package, with five stages, over 50 weapons, base building, skill trees, crafting, and even Steam Workshop support for user-created content.

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KitGuru says: Have you already tried Escape from Duckov? If you haven't, will you, or isn't it your type of game?

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