ARC Raiders Free Weekend on Steam: October 8 to 12 Details

ARC Raiders is free to play on Steam, Xbox and PlayStation from October 8 to October 12, 2026, and the free window gives access to the full game. Embark Studios announced it on October 2 as a chance to try the game before buying, and it opens on the same day as Frozen Trail, which the studio calls its biggest update since launch.

What the free window covers

Steam lists the game's release as October 30, 2025, and Embark's Steam announcement says the window comes ahead of the first anniversary, which falls 22 days after the window opens. The studio frames it as the best moment so far for new players to join, since Frozen Trail arrives in the same week.

Embark says free play unlocks the full game on all three platforms, so this is a complete session of the extraction shooter and not a demo. You need an Embark ID (age 13 or older), an account on your platform, an internet connection, and you must accept Embark's terms and end user license agreement. On Steam the game runs on Windows only.

The window runs 3 days and 23 hours, which Embark rounds to four days. It starts on a Thursday and ends on a Monday morning in Europe. In the US it closes at 01:00 PT early Monday (04:00 ET), so US players effectively get the weekend and should plan their last session for Sunday evening.

What Frozen Trail adds

Frozen Trail arrives with the window. Embark's content preview describes a new map, Pendola Pass, an old Italian village and Exodus transport hub with a supermarket, a town square, an observatory and a buried train depot. Inside the pass sits the Frigate, an ARC vessel you can board and fight through. Three new machines appear: the Bully, which charges at you, the Skulker, which hunts from the edge of your vision, and the Hydra, a three-part turret found on the Frigate. A new Raider Den extension called the Outpost rounds out the content.

The Steam announcement adds new weapons and gadgets, Weapon Amplification, a reworked skill tree, a Reward Pass system and customizable Outposts. New players can enter Pendola Pass at once by teaming up with someone who has already unlocked it.

Progress and the price if you stay

Embark's announcement does not describe what happens to your progress if you buy afterwards. Insider Gaming reports that everything earned during the free period carries over on purchase, a claim Embark has not repeated in its own posts. If you plan to buy anyway, treat that as likely but unconfirmed.

On Steam the base game costs $19.99 in the US and 19.99 EUR in Germany, half of the regular 39.99 on both. Steam's store page shows the special promotion ending on October 8, so the discount stops on the day the window opens. Valve's page shows Very Positive overall reviews, about 82 percent of roughly 418,000 on October 3. If the half-price offer matters to you, buy before it ends, or expect the full 39.99 afterwards. If you are undecided, use the free window to play a few raids first. The Steam Autumn Sale roundup lists other offers that finish around the same time.

Before you download

Embark does not mention pre-loading, so expect to download once the window opens. Sessions are PvPvE, so other players can shoot back. Embark's September 30 anti-cheat update says the game uses kernel-level protection from Denuvo and detection from Anybrain, plus Embark's own machine-learning models. A separate PvE matchmaking toggle test runs from October 13 to 20, the week after the free window closes, so co-op players who dislike PvP get a second reason to come back.

Frequently asked questions

Check the Steam store page on October 8 to confirm the window is live in your region.