A Newzoo report on PC and console gaming placed Escape from Tarkov in 11th place in terms of total PC play time for all of 2025, comfortably ahead of titles like Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals, PUBG et Apex Legends. For those wondering why every studio with a budget seems to be developing an extraction shooter right now, here’s the answer.
What Newzoo data actually shows
This ranking comes from Newzoo’s 2026 PC and Console Gaming Report, which tracks play time across platforms rather than concurrent players or total players. This distinction is important. Escape from Tarkov may not have the raw player count of a Fortnite or a Counter-Strike 2but its players spend considerable hours there. The kind of hours that come from losing a fully equipped PMC to a headshot in the dark and immediately being put back in the queue.
Coming in at 10th place, just one position above Tarkov, is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Below in the ranking, we find The Sims 4, World of Warcraft et Valuing. It’s a truly impressive neighborhood in which to compete.
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This ranking measures total play time, not concurrent players or install base. Escape from Tarkov’s position reflects session depth and player retention, not necessarily its audience size compared to free-to-play titles.
Why 2025 was a landmark year for Battlestate Games
The timing of this data is not a coincidence. Escape from Tarkov reached version 1.0 in November 2025, ending more than nine years of early access development that began with the closed alpha in 2016. This full release brought back a wave of players and sparked new interest from people who were waiting for the game to leave beta before committing.
Battlestate Games spent nearly a decade building one of the most demanding shooters on PC. The loop of equipping, landing in Norvinsk as an operator USEC or BEARand fighting to extract one’s loot intact is punishing in a way that most games simply aren’t. Losing gear upon death is not a mechanic that most players tolerate, making those who stay extraordinarily invested.
This investment is directly reflected in the playing time figures.
The extraction shooter gold rush has a clear point of origin
Here’s the thing: the industry doesn’t chase genres for no reason. Arc Raiders was launched recently and sold 14 million copies with nearly 1 million concurrent players at its peak. Marathon from Bungie is in preparation. Delta Force moved towards the extraction format. Developers as a whole offer extraction mechanics to editors, and editors say yes.
Newzoo data gives a concrete basis for this trend. Escape from Tarkov, a game that never had a free-to-play release, never launched on console, and spent years in a notoriously difficult early access state, still outplayed titles backed by huge marketing budgets and Established fan bases. The audience for this genre is real, the retention is high, and players invest for hundreds of hours if the loop is well designed.
What most gamers miss when looking at extraction shooters is that the appeal of the genre isn’t in the action. It lies in the consequences. Every raid in Tarkov has weight because losing your gear really hurts. This tension is what keeps players on the edge of their seats, and it’s exactly what every new extraction shooter tries to replicate.
For a complete look at how Battlestate plans to capitalize on the 1.0 release, the Competitive Arena Developer Blog offers a look at what the studio has in store for the overall Tarkov experience. To learn more about the shooters shaping today’s PC scene, check out our latest gaming news.
