Following years of development, Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders has been released to universal acclaim and juggernaut sales.
With over 12 million players already, Embark’s extraction shooter is one of the best-selling games of 2025. Following launch, the game topped Steam’s best-sellers list for the Christmas period, and new copies are still being sold.
According to games industry analyst Michael Pachter, Arc Raiders has already made over six times its budget since release. The infamous analyst, who has been accurate in his budget and revenue reports over the decades, revealed that the game cost around $75 million to create.
Speaking on his show SIFTD Games, Pachter shared that the game was created with a budget of $75 million, including marketing costs, over its 7-year development cycle. This figure includes every trailer, including the game’s expensive reveal at The Game Awards, and other marketing costs.
It’s worth noting that the original incarnation of Arc Raiders was designed as a free-to-play game. However, Embark changed tact after the free version of the game didn’t respect players’ time. As it turns out, the game’s price was inspired by the success of Helldivers 2 which recently hit a major milestone of 20 million copies sold.
Pachter then explained that Arc Raiders has already raked in over $500 million, more than 6.6 times its budget. However, with sales of microtransactions, the game has likely made even more money.
“Little secret here: Arc Raiders cost 75 million to make [over] three years [of full production],” he said. “A team of 70 and that includes marketing. 75 million bucks to make that game. And it’s going to make it’s already made 500 million. It’s done 12.5 million units at 40 bucks. So it’s already done 500 million, and it’s probably going to do close to a billion.”
Of course, with additional development going towards the creation of post-launch content as a live-service game – which includes the confirmed multiple new maps and other features – that budget does increase. However, the sheer hit of Embark’s shooter has made it one of the biggest success stories of the last year.
