Year In Review: Was 2025 The Year of The Extraction Shooter?

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Extraction shooters are all about high stakes – you risk losing everything for a chance at great rewards. These games require both precise aiming and a strong mental game. While extraction shooters saw a big resurgence in 2025, it’s debatable whether they truly became the dominant genre of the year.

Let’s examine the extraction shooter games that came out in 2025 to see if the year truly marked a turning point for the genre.

Accessible Extraction Shooters Opened the Market

Extraction shooters are usually difficult games known for being unforgiving. Titles like Escape from Tarkov have kept this genre from becoming widely popular, featuring complicated gameplay, a lack of helpful tutorials, and fast-paced combat where you can be eliminated quickly.

But in 2025, extraction shooters became much more accessible.

Arena Breakout: Infinite recently became available on Steam, offering players a free option similar to Tarkov, but generally more user-friendly. Around the same time, Escape from Duckov appeared as a single-player game that playfully parodied Tarkov, proving to be both charming and easier to play.

ARC Raiders, released in 2025, stood out as a successful game thanks to its natural growth fueled by player enthusiasm, rather than relying on marketing or repetitive gameplay. It was the second title from Embark Studios and earned praise for this approach.

A Surge of Shooters

2025 saw a huge wave of extraction-based games gaining popularity, with both new releases and significant updates. Games like Gray Zone Warfare, Zero Sievert, The Forever Winter, and Escape from Tarkov all had their moment in the spotlight, bringing increased attention to this demanding genre.

And we’re not done yet, as there are more to hit the market, such as Bungie’s Marathon.

The sudden popularity of extraction shooter games presented a strange problem. While fans now had plenty of options to choose from, the market quickly became crowded, which could diminish what makes these challenging, specialized games unique and appealing.

It seemed that every developer was at least considering the extraction shooter model in some way.

Extraction shooters became a huge phenomenon in 2025, going beyond just being games. Titles like ARC Raiders generated a lot of excitement and felt truly innovative. This year, the popularity of these games also helped streamers and content creators gain massive followings – a rare feat for any game genre.

That year also saw game developers begin experimenting with the ‘extraction’ genre, trying to redefine its limits. This is why Embark Studios chose to create an extraction-based adventure game rather than a traditional extraction shooter.

Was 2025 The Year of the Extraction Shooter?

Whether you look at it from a business or gaming standpoint, 2025 was a breakout year for extraction shooter games. The number of new games released, combined with the success of the biggest titles, proves that this genre really took off in 2025.

Some longtime fans worry that a flood of simpler, more accessible extraction shooters could dilute what makes the genre special, but their concerns aren’t really being heard. Whether or not this is the year extraction shooters become truly popular, it’s definitely the year the genre is changing and growing.

This change could make extraction shooter games better or worse, depending on your perspective.

2025 was a significant year for gaming. Extraction shooters exploded in popularity, attracting a huge audience of viewers, content creators, and streamers.

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2025-12-29 15:18