Shroud Rallies Fans To Vote Arc Raiders GOTY, and It Reaches 416,517 Players All-Time Peak

The campaign for this year’s Game Awards has turned unexpectedly competitive after streamer Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek called on fans to rally behind Arc Raiders for Game of the Year. His appeal, made on November 5 during a live stream, arrived just days before the game reached a new all-time peak of 416,517 concurrent players on Steam. The surge confirmed that Embark Studios’ extraction shooter had not only retained its audience but expanded it significantly after a steady post-launch climb.

Arc Raiders’ October 2025 launch stormed past 100,000 players within hours, topping Steam’s global chart before breakfast in North America — a hint, even then, that Embark’s shooter was built for scale.

“Don’t let that Expedition game win...”

Shroud, a Canadian streamer with 11.3M audience on Twitch, told his viewers, "Don't let that Expedition game win," referring to Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the French studio’s highly praised turn-based RPG. His tone was half-joking but pointed. He accused The Game Awards of favoring single-player titles, describing multiplayer fans as “the minority” among voters. Within hours, his remarks spread across gaming forums and social media, reigniting the debate over how The Game Awards measures achievement — through artistry, popularity, or influence.

Arc Raiders’ 416,517-player record (according to SteamDB), set three days later on November 8, gave his comments new weight. The timing suggested a correlation between his public endorsement and the game’s renewed visibility. Even before that spike, Arc Raiders had been performing above expectations, debuting at the end of October with more than 250,000 concurrent players and a quick first-week rebound after its 1.1.0 update. The patch added the “Hidden Bunker” event and several balance improvements, which helped sustain engagement beyond the initial rush.

Image: Arc Raiders online stats on SteamDB, 9 Nov

For Embark Studios, the game’s trajectory marks an uncommon success story. Built on the demanding structure of an extraction shooter, Arc Raiders simplifies some of the genre’s harsher conventions without losing its competitive tension. The approach made it accessible to a broader audience while maintaining the tactical core that defines the format. The post-Shroud peak only reinforced that balance — a design focused on quick action and social play rather than grinding endurance.

Meanwhile, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to dominate the year’s critical conversation. Developed by Sandfall Interactive, it has been described as a “revolution” in turn-based RPG design, merging rhythmic combat with painterly art direction. The game sold a million copies within three days and passed five million in October, a performance that all but guarantees its presence among the top Game of the Year nominees. For many critics, it represents the artistic apex of 2025’s releases. For Shroud and his audience, it represents something else — another instance of single-player prestige crowding out multiplayer innovation.

The Game Awards, founded by Geoff Keighley, have long balanced jury selections with public votes. Yet the perception that single-player titles dominate the top category persists. Multiplayer experiences, even when commercially dominant, are often sidelined to technical or community-focused categories such as “Best Ongoing Game” or “Best Multiplayer.” Shroud’s comments tapped directly into that frustration, turning a passing remark into a rallying point for players who believe participation and collaboration deserve equal recognition with narrative and design.

Arc Raiders’ record-breaking weekend confirmed that the game had become more than a flash launch. The number — 416,517 concurrent players — placed it among the top-performing new releases of 2025 and one of Steam’s biggest post-October success stories. While The Game Awards nominations are not yet public, Arc Raiders’ resurgence arrives at a moment when momentum can still influence visibility. Whether that converts into a nomination remains uncertain, but the story has already reshaped how fans and studios interpret community-driven success.

The Game Awards ceremony is set to announce its nominees within weeks, with expected competition from titles like Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong. In that lineup, Arc Raiders’ numbers stand as their own argument — a measure of engagement that extends beyond critical consensus. Whether it earns the title or not, its rise from a sleeper launch to one of Steam’s dominant names within a month tells the story of how influence now moves faster, louder, and more directly between creators and audiences.