Anyone who hasn’t jumped into ARC Raiders yet will be able to play the full game for free next week on PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Embark Studios announced that the free play period runs from October 8 at 2:00 AM Pacific (5:00 AM Eastern) to October 12 at 1:00 AM Pacific (4:00 AM Eastern), and it includes access to the entire game rather than a limited trial. The extraction shooter had sold over 12.4 million units as of January, and it won Best Multiplayer at The Game Awards 2025 along with Most Innovative Gameplay at The Steam Awards 2025.
The free weekend lines up with the October 8 launch of Frozen Trail, which Embark calls the biggest update ARC Raiders has received since launch. Frozen Trail adds Pendola Pass, a new map Embark described in May as the largest in the game. It also brings new enemy designs, new progression systems for players who have maxed out their Raider Den and hit the Skill Point ceiling, and the first steps toward exploring the origin of ARC itself. New players can jump into Pendola Pass immediately, as long as they’re teamed up with players who have already unlocked the new map.
Frozen Trail is the first of the game’s twice-yearly major updates, after Embark moved away from its monthly cadence back in May. At the time, I said the change sounded like the right call for keeping the game evolving in meaningful ways, though six months between major updates is a long time when it’s so easy for players to bounce off a game and never return. Ahead of the update, Embark has started permanently banning all cheaters with no warnings or second chances, and it says 85 percent fewer players were queue teaming within five days of a recent matchmaking change.
