Will ARC Raiders focus more on PvE than PvP?

ARC Raiders prioritizes PvE, but still keeps player behavior in mind

ARC Raiders has been drawing attention since launch for how it reframes the extraction-shooter formula toward a broader audience. Recent coverage highlights that the game’s live-service design is being tuned based on what players actually do, especially across PvE and PvP.

Embark shared that it’s observing meaningful PvE participation, stating that about 30% of players focus on PvP. In other words, the majority of players appear to spend their time on PvE-first loops, and the studio is treating that as a key indicator rather than something to “fix” by forcing PvP.

That matters because extraction shooters are often marketed around player-versus-player tension, but ARC Raiders is effectively validating a different bet: that the moment-to-moment structure can be engaging even when players don’t primarily choose fights against other players.

Embark has also described how it plans to extend gameplay systems over time by leveraging player interaction patterns. Instead of “real-time learning” in the extreme sense, the approach is more like incremental AI upgrades informed by player behavior—specifically, improvements to challenging systems like enemy or objective encounters, and even the performance of flying drones as players engage with them.

A common risk for live-service games is losing momentum when one segment of the audience doesn’t engage as expected. Here, however, the studio’s stance is that the PvE skew is part of how the game is “supposed” to work for its current audience.

So the immediate story is not a pivot away from PvP, but a confirmation of where player interest already sits:

• Expect PvE to remain the primary draw for many players
• View PvP as a minority slice, not the default pathway
• Watch AI and tuning to evolve based on observed behavior, not assumptions