Escape From Tarkov Hits Significant Sales Milestone

After more than eight years in beta, the extraction shooter Escape from Tarkov officially launched its 1.0 version on November 15. In the month following its release, developer Battlestate Games announced that the game has sold over 1 million copies. Unlike many early access titles, joining Escape from Tarkov’s beta required players to purchase one of the various pre-order editions, meaning the post-launch sales largely reflect new players entering the game.

Controversially, Battlestate mandated that players re-purchase the game to access it on Steam, even if they had already bought it directly from the studio. The game also stirred debate with the introduction of a $250 pre-order edition that granted access to an exclusive PVE mode and other features, which some players criticized as pay-to-win.

In addition to the impressive sales figure, Battlestate shared some intriguing stats from Tarkov’s first month of full release. Players collectively logged a staggering 135 million hours in-game, which translates to about 15,410 years of gameplay. The 1.0 version finally allowed players to escape from Tarkov, with the first player to achieve this milestone celebrated on the studio’s social media. Since then, over 500 players have successfully completed one of the game’s multiple endings.

Escape from Tarkov isn’t the only extraction shooter hitting sales milestones recently; the parody shooter Escape from Duckov also reached 1 million sales just five days after its mid-October launch. Additionally, Embark Studios’ new extraction shooter Arc Raiders has gained significant traction since its October release, challenging Tarkov’s dominance in the genre it helped define.